100 Blood and SmokeThe Bond in PlayAny time a character imbibes a point or more of Vitae, it creates or reinforces a blood bond. The bond comes in three stages, usually at the first, second, and third drinks. Kindred characters can attempt to resist the bond by spending Willpower. Make a Blood Potency roll, minus the number of Vitae ingested. The Willpower point does not add to this roll. If successful, that drink does not add to the bond. However, the character suffers Vitae addiction normally. Any further attempts to resist the bond from the same vampire suffer a cumulative –1 die penalty; even ancient Kindred cannot resist the bond forever. Mortals have no such defense. First Stage: Have you ever felt a crush, that butterflies-in-thestomach feeling, but for someone you know you shouldn’t want to have anything to do with? Have you ever kissed someone, and loved it at the time, then regretted it later, only to know you were going to do it again and love it just as much? That’s what the first stage of the bond feels like. It’s not love. It couldn’t convince anyone but maybe an inexperienced teen that he’s in love. But it pulls you and makes you want. It makes you want to be close to your regnant. It makes you want their approval. When taking a Social maneuver against her thrall, the regnant’s impression is considered one step higher(see p. 174). As well, she gains a +1 die bonus on any Social action or Discipline roll against the thrall. Causing direct or indirect harm to one’s regnant constitutes a breaking point at Humanity/Integrity 5. Second Stage: Have you ever felt complete and utter tension when simply thinking about someone? Have you ever made a stupid excuse to run off and touch yourself to get rid of that tension? Have you ever blushed when someone’s name came up, then lashed out when someone accused you of having feelings for them? This is what the second stage of the bond feels like. It’s easy to confuse for love. It’s a strong, pervasive affection that makes you vulnerable, and keeps you persistently wanting more. When taking a Social maneuver against her thrall, the regnant’s impression is considered two steps higher (see p. 174). As well, she gains a +2 die bonus on any Social action or Discipline roll against the thrall. Causing indirect or direct harm to one’s regnant constitutes a breaking point at Humanity/3, or on Integrity with a penalty of –3.Third Stage: Has someone’s name alone make you bite your lower lip in anticipation? Has it ever aroused you to imagine her reaction to something you’ve done? Have you ever sabotaged something that could have been special, for fear of its intrusion between you and her? Has your brain gone wild, imagining the worst possible scenario when she meets someone new? Have you ever thought to intervene in order to protect what you have? Have you ever tried to agitate her, because her irritation is better than her neglect? This is the feeling of a full blood bond. It’s nothing short of infatuation. It’s a tantalizing, forceful affection that always eats at the back of your mind. When taking a Social maneuver against her thrall, the regnant’s impression is always considered perfect (see p. 174). As well, she gains a +3 die penalty on any Social action or Discipline PerversionSometimes — more often than Kindred like to admit — two vampires will share from one another to the point of a full bond. They become hopelessly addicted to one another, and immune to outside bonds. They become self-absorbed. To each other, they are everything. It’s the sort of love that almost always ends in tragedy. Kindred call this phenomenon “perversion,” and for good reason. In some cities, perversion is illegal. Most couples committing the crime believe they’ll be able to hide it, but the signs are usually obvious. In most, it’s derided and chastised. Of course, what petty, selfserving society wouldn’t reject those able to rise above childish bickering in favor of eternal companionship and happiness? A couple that doesn’t care about the barbed words of courtiers or the protocols of Elysium is more dangerous to the status quo than even the most anarchist Unaligned Kindred.roll against the thrall. Causing indirect or direct harm to one’s regnant constitutes a breaking point at Humanity/Integrity 1. Lastly, all of the regnant’s lingering Discipline effects gain additional duration. Any Discipline that would last a scene lasts one night. Any that last a night instead last a week. One week becomes one month. One month becomes one year. Once the bond reaches the third stage, it shatters all other existing bonds, and prevents further bonds from forming.The blood bond lasts a year from the most recent drink. Full or partial, the bond disintegrates after that time. Outside waiting out the year, methods for diffusing the bond — save for an overwhelming third-stage bond — are unreliable myths at best. The year limit isn’t quite on a calendar…it can vary by a few days or weeks. We simplify to a year for easy gameplay.GhoulsIn humans, Kindred Vitae teases at the gifts of the Requiem. When mortals taste Kindred blood, Kindred can give them a hint of their power. These mortals are called ghouls. They enjoy limited access to certain Kindred advantages. They quickly heal wounds, no longer age, and exhibit increased physical potency. They may even use some Disciplines. However, these gifts are fleeting; they depend completely on the ghoul’s continued reliance on Kindred Vitae. If a ghoul goes without for a month, she loses all these gifts as if she never had them. This phenomenon serves as a great advantage to Kindred; it’s a powerful tool for tempting mortals into the blood bond, and thus helping to maintain the Masquerade in their servants. Ghouls make for loyal and effective aides; their ability to maneuver uninhibited during the day means that many Kindred use them to maintain their mortal personas or watch over their havens.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 101Ghoul RetainersGhoul servants use a slightly altered version of the Retainer Merit from p. 123. By definition, ghoul servants are inherently more competent than their mortal counterparts. Use the Retainer rules to create a ghoul servant, but add a dot of the regnant’s Disciplines for a one- or two-dot Retainer, a second dot for a three- or four-dot Retainer, and a third dot for a five-dot Retainer. Most cities see ghouls as a necessary burden. Some Princes outlaw the practice of ghouling, as a ghoul is arguably not “of the Blood.” In many cities, ghouls are even welcome on Elysium grounds. Typically, a ghoul is considered slightly more significant than a mortal, but less than Kindred. Trespasses and transgressions against ghouls are generally allowed, and ghouls are expected to respect “their superiors.” Most cities treat killing or maiming a ghoul identically to attacking the owner’s haven, as older Kindred see ghouls as valuable property. On an individual level, Kindred defend their ghouls fiercely. Even an abusive regnant will grow violently defensive over his ghouls; after all, a ghoul is an investment of Vitae, the very thing that keeps the vampire rising from night to night. An underground initiative within the Carthian Movement — the Anti-Obstructionist Army — dedicates itself to eliminating Kindred interference into the lives of humans. Generally, this means eliminating those Kindred who maintain large stables of ghouls. The Movement publicly eschews this philosophy, but has made no major steps to eradicate it from their ranks. You can find full rules for ghoul characters, including character creation guidelines, on p. 290. Creating a ghoul requires one point of Vitae, and a point of Willpower. A ghoul needs further Vitae monthly, but no further Willpower. DiablerieDiablerie, often called Amaranth in the old form, is the act of murdering another Kindred, and drinking the very essence that animated him. Diablerie is seen as cannibalistic, and is taboo in even the most lawless of cities. Only fringe groups within the covenants condone diablerie, and their parent covenants tend to root those groups out and disown them once uncovered. To commit diablerie, a vampire must drink from her victim beyond the point of Final Death. Once a Kindred victim is completely without Vitae, each point that would otherwise be taken becomes instead one point of lethal damage. Once the victim’s Health boxes are full of aggravated damage, the victim’s very soul struggles against his assailant as he reaches Final Death. At this point, the murderer’s player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Strength + Resolve. Vigor may add dice to this roll; the Willpower point does not. The murderer may continue to roll, until she runs out of Willpower to spend, or she achieves a number of successes equal to the victim’s Blood Potency dots. Once she reaches that mark, the diablerie is complete. The murderer immediately gains one Experience per dot of the victim’s Blood Potency. This Experience may only be used to purchase Blood Potency dots. It can be saved if it’s not enough to buy a dot. As well, the murderer gains a dot of the highest of the victim’s Disciplines that she does not have herself. If she has all of the victim’s Disciplines at equal or higher level, she instead gains a Skill dot from her victim’s repertoire. Diablerie is always a breaking point, regardless of the vampire’s Humanity score. The very act feels heinous. During and after the act, the murderer feels dirty and wrong. She sometimes hears the victim’s voice in the back of her mind, urging her toward oblivion as penance for her crime. Most Kindred will kill a human at some point during her Requiem, but Amaranth is far more than extinguishing a life: It’s the willful destruction of a soul. While modern, secular minds often eschew the existence of a soul, a diablerist will never deny its existence. Diablerie causes the Tainted Condition (see p. 306). Diablerie AddictionDiablerie, while perverse, is the greatest rush a vampire can experience. The sensation and resulting power are utterly addictive. Do not roll to resist addiction; the addiction takes automatically. Resisting a reasonable opportunity to commit Amaranth in the future requires a Resolve + Composure roll, with a penalty equal to the would-be victim’s Blood Potency dots. Failure results in the Persistent Addicted Condition (see p. 301).Curses Great and SmallWhile Kindred carry many gifts and advantages, their Requiems are far from blessed. Vampires suffer numerous banes. Collectively, Kindred all suffer from the “great banes”: fire, sunlight, and stakes through the heart. In due time after the Embrace, vampires suffer the banes of their clans. All Kindred feel the pull of the Beast, which tempts them into violence. Torpor drags them to lengthy slumbers. As the years pass and they fall away from humanity, Kindred develop other, unique banes. The Pain of Purity: SunlightSunlight represents truth and honesty. It stands for visibility, where Kindred exist in the deceptive darkness. While it isn’t always immediately deadly, it burns Kindred flesh. The Lancea et Sanctum attributes this to the judgment of God, as potent Kindred and particularly monstrous vampires burn hotter
102 Blood and Smokeand faster than young, humane Kindred. Damage taken quickly looks like a normal burn; the flesh chars, sears, and smokes. Damage taken slowly looks more like decay, as the flesh sloughs off with time. When sunlight strikes Kindred, the rays begin to decay and burn their flesh. Their Humanity dots determine the intensity of the damage, and their Blood Potency dots determine how quickly they disintegrate. See the tables below for details. Find where the vampire falls on the Humanity scale to determine what type and how much damage they take, and use their Blood Potency to determine at what interval they suffer the damage. For example, a Humanity 5, Blood Potency 3 vampire suffers three levels of lethal damage every minute of exposure. Resilience does not affect sunlight damage. Note that high levels of Blood Potency mean multiple times the damage in a given turn. So a Humanity 5, Blood Potency 8 vampire takes nine levels of lethal damage per turn exposed to the sun. A character can avoid damage from sunlight only with complete coverage from its rays. If she only exposes her eyes, for example to run for shelter, consider her Blood Potency one step lower on the chart. Humanity Dots Damage Type7-10 1 lethal6 2 lethal5 3 lethal4 1 aggravated3 2 aggravated2 3 aggravated1 4 aggravated0 5 aggravatedBlood Potency DotsDamage Frequency0 —1-2 Ten minutes3-4 One minute4-5 One turn6-7 2x / turn8-9 3x / turn10 5x / turnThe Pain of Knowledge: FireFire represents humankind’s dominance over the natural world, and ability to manipulate its environment as a tool. This symbolically human tool destroys Kindred flesh like nothing else. The Circle of the Crone believes fire burns as a lesson to Kindred, reminding them from whence they came, and can never return. Most Kindred just acknowledge that it could mean Final Death within moments, and avoid it at all costs.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 103Fire automatically inflicts aggravated damage per turn of exposure (no attack roll is required). The larger the flame, the more harm that’s inflicted. The hotter the flame, the greater the injury. Mortals take only lethal damage. Each turn, a vampire may turn a number of aggravated damage levels to lethal levels equal to his dots in Resilience.Size of Fire DamageTorch 1Bonfire 2Inferno 3Heat of Fire Damage ModifierCandle (first-degree burns) —Torch (second-degree burns) +1Bunsen burner (third-degree burns)+2Chemical fire/molten metal +3Clan BanesThe five lineages of Kindred each carry affinities for certain Disciplines. This gives them advantages others may not have access to. On the other hand, each clan also has a bane, a particular aspect of the curse that only affects their familial line. Clan banes do not affect a vampire until she reaches six dots of Humanity. They do not go away if she regains her seventh dot; they remain with her throughout the rest of her Requiem. Daeva: The Wanton CurseDaeva immerse themselves in the mortal world; it not only feeds them, it compels them. When Daeva choose vessels, they become obsessed. When they drink from a mortal once, they’re fine. On their second and further drinks from the same source, roll Humanity. Failure causes the Persistent Dependent Condition toward the mortal (see p.302). The Condition only goes away with the mortal’s death. For this reason, Daeva tend toward either remarkable promiscuity, or they cultivate massive harems and herds. Gangrel: The Feral CurseGangrel Beasts boil close to the surface. A Gangrel can run with the devil inside her, but has difficulty fighting it. All her dice pools to resist frenzy are limited by her Humanity dots. This weakness does not affect dice pools to ride the wave. Mekhet: The Tenebrous CurseMekhet blood is the blood of shadows. Their Requiem is one of secrecy and symbolism. For this reason, Mekhet each suffer a single bane that is not tied to a breaking point. When the Mekhet reaches Humanity 6, choose a bane (see p. 108 for banes). This bane counts toward the three banes a vampire is allowed, so a Mekhet is less able to mitigate detachment. As well, consider a Mekhet’s Humanity to be one dot lower for all Humanity-based banes (including sunlight and torpor).Nosferatu: The Lonely CurseNosferatu embody fear, disgust, and all manner of uncomfortable feelings. Some are inhumanly ugly. Some have a gaze that makes a person feel violated. Every Nosferatu has something that stands in the way of normal relationships. When dealing with humans, treat the Nosferatu’s Humanity as two dots lower for the purpose of Social penalties, and treat any Presence and Manipulation failures as dramatic failures. This bane does not apply to interactions with Touchstones or Kindred.Ventrue: The Aloof CurseThe Ventrue are confident. Why wouldn’t they be? They’re clearly superior. This attitude frequently causes Lords conflict, as they treat all those around them as objects. When creating a Ventrue, apply his first Touchstone to his seventh dot of Humanity. This means his first Humanity loss will also detach that Touchstone as the bane takes effect. Further Touchstones may fill his sixth through second dots.FrenzySometimes, the Beast grows impatient. When the vampire faces danger, hunger, or threat, the Beast goads her to immediate and extreme response, usually meaning a blood-soaked frenzy. Frenzy comes from many sources, but always shares the same response: End the problem by any means necessary.When faced with a strong enough stimulus, the vampire risks losing control of her Beast. She can temporarily hold the monster inside, but eventually she must face her monstrosity. Either she’ll force it down, or the Beast overwhelms her to fight, feed, or flee.A frenzying vampire can, but is under no compulsion to, lash out with her predatory aura.Who’s DrivingWhile a vampire’s rational consciousness is no longer in control during frenzy, that’s no reason to yank control away from the player. Let the player roleplay it out. If there’s a real issue with how either player or Storyteller plays a character, talk it out after the session and see if you can’t come to a compromise.
104 Blood and SmokeSuggested ModifiersHere are some of the general modifiers that could influence frenzy. Under the right circumstances, any of these things could be a provocation to frenzy. Provocation or Circumstance ModifierDead friend −2Dead lover −4Destruction of important property −1Destruction of minor property +1Expecting provocation +1Hungry (4 or fewer Vitae) −2Hurt friend −1Hurt lover −2Inside burning building −4Insulted by a superior −1Insulted by an inferior −2On Elysium grounds +2Provocation was Touchstone +2Publicly ostracized −2Seeing a trivial open wound +1Seeing a massive open wound −1Small fire (torch) −2Starving (2 or fewer Vitae) −4Sunlight (causing aggravated damage)−3Sunlight (causing bashing damage) +2Sunlight (causing lethal damage) −1Surprised by provocation −1Wounded (at all) −1Wounded in last three Health boxes −3Resisting FrenzyTo resist the Beast, roll Resolve + Composure. Check the suggested modifiers for penalties and bonuses depending on the circumstance. The Storyteller is encouraged to come up with other situational modifiers to reflect the relative tension of the scene. For example, if the vampire’s rival has made a point of goading her every time they meet, it may impose an additional –1 die penalty to the roll. Resisting frenzy is reflexive. Dramatic failure on this roll results in frenzy, and the character cannot end the frenzy until she reaches a breaking point. If the Beast gets its desire, choose a new one. Failure means the character succumbs to frenzy. Success means she resists the Beast, but gains the Tempted Condition (see p. 307). Exceptional success means she not only resists the Beast, but regains a point of spent Willpower, and any Willpower she spent fighting the Beast during the scene. When a character enters frenzy, she gains a Beat. She can opt to turn a failure into a dramatic failure for a second Beat. As with any Beats, these Beats only come from dramatic situations with consequences.Willpower cannot be spent for three bonus dice on a roll to resist frenzy. Willpower has a different effect. A point of Willpower holds off the Beast for one turn. The vampire visibly fights the frenzy. She may growl, hiss, smash something, or sprint off. But she’s temporarily in control. However, she must still face her Beast. Once she stops spending Willpower, make the Resolve + Composure roll like normal, but take a bonus die for each Willpower point spent. So, if you spend four Willpower points for your character to take four turns fighting her frenzy, on the fifth turn, roll her Resolve + Composure + 4. The FrenzyUpon entering frenzy, determine what the Beast wants. Does it want to escape? Does it want to punish the person who insulted his host? Does it want blood? Typically, frenzy ends when that thing occurs. Some Devotions and Coils may end frenzy prematurely. If the character enters torpor, the frenzy ends.A vampire’s Touchstone can talk her down from frenzy with an extended Social roll, requiring a number of successes equal to three times the vampire’s Blood Potency. The Touchstone can make one roll per turn. So a Blood Potency 4 vampire’s Touchstone would require 12 successes to talk her out of frenzy. During this time, the vampire’s likely to cause significant problems for herself and others. When in frenzy, the vampire becomes stronger, faster, and tougher. Her Beast drives her to feats of terrifying physical prowess. Add her Blood Potency dots to any Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina rolls or resistances. (Do not apply her improved Stamina to her Health levels.) Ignore any wound penalties she should suffer. She can grab and bite as a single instant action, as she ravenously mauls her victim. Apply the successes on her Strength + Brawl roll to establish a grapple as lethal damage, and she takes an immediate point of Vitae from the victim. If a character tries to coerce her to behavior contrary to the Beast’s desires, either via Social actions or through Disciplines, the effort fails. They can, however, divert the Beast’s attention to another, similar target. For example, if Veronica falls to her Beast due to hunger and leaps at Elspeth, Elspeth might Dominate her to attack Dominic instead. While frenzied, the vampire does everything in her power to accomplish the Beast’s desires. She does so with immediate, forceful, and destructive abandon. If there’s someone in the way, she throws him or decks him. If she’s hungry, she bites the closest thing to her mouth. That said, the Beast isn’t stupid. It’s capable of doing the kinds of things an enraged, terrified, or starving animal predator is, and it will lash out with the predatory aura if that will help sate it.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 105means she’s prepared to adapt to a new world. Sometimes, this goes awry; she wakes up a whole new person, or, rarely, with distorted memories of her past existence. At the end of a vampire’s turn, after any reflexive healing, if her last (rightmost) Health box is filled with lethal damage, she falls to torpor. If she’s in daysleep, and has no blood with which to awaken, she instead drifts into the torpor. As well, a vampire can voluntarily fall into torpor, to shake off the feeding limitations imposed by her Blood Potency. During the first day of torpor, the vampire subconsciously spends as much Vitae as it takes to heal any wounds she may have. If, after spending all her Vitae, she still suffers a wound in her last three Health boxes, consider her Humanity one dot lower for determining how long she slumbers. For every twenty-five years a vampire remains in torpor, she loses a dot of Blood Potency. Use the following chart to determine how long a character must remain in torpor. Multiply the base duration (based on the vampire’s Humanity dots) by her Blood Potency. After that amount of time in torpor, she can awaken. This isn’t always exact; it could be up to a quarter of the time shorter or longer. As well, any vampire with two more dots of Blood Potency than she has can feed her a point of Vitae to awaken her (with the normal risks of blood bonds and addiction). This can happen at any time.Humanity Base Torpor Duration9-10 One night8-9 Two nights6-7 One week5 One month4 One year3 Five years2 Ten years1 50 years0 100 yearsSome rare bloodlines are rumored to know deep secrets about the truths of torpor. They claim to communicate with those in the throes of torpor. They swear they can divine otherworldly knowledge of the realms of the dead from torpor dreams. They suggest the Kindred soul wanders another plane with the specters of history, and comes back with hidden information. Of course, none of these claims have ever been confirmed. But some Kindred swear by the stories of these haruspices, and some rulers keep them as chief advisors. A Stake to the HeartWhen a wooden stake penetrates the Kindred heart, the vampire immediately enters torpor. Unlike normal torpor, he awakens immediately upon the stake’s removal, but not before. To target the heart, make an attack roll with a –3 die penalty after factoring Defense. If the attack causes five points of damage, it penetrates the heart. Frenzy Chicken While losing control to the Beast can prove fatal, or at very least socially inconvenient, it can also prove a stark advantage to be the first to lash out in a brawl. If multiple characters simultaneously use Willpower to resist their Beasts, the first to give in gets the biggest benefits. When any character in the scene enters frenzy, any other characters who were attempting to resist their Beasts only benefit from half their Blood Potency dots (rounded up) on Physical actions if they succumb to frenzy. Kindred can avoid this penalty by immediately giving in to their Beasts, or by riding the wave. Taking any action contrary to the Beast’s agenda requires a point of Willpower per turn. Riding the WaveSome Kindred choose to grab their Beasts by the reins, and wield that monstrous power. It’s a risky proposition, but one with great rewards. This practice is called riding the wave of frenzy. To ride the wave, spend a Willpower point, and make the normal Resolve + Composure resistance roll. The Willpower point does not add to this roll. Success holds off the frenzy for a turn as if she’d spent Willpower to fight the frenzy. She can continue to do this until she fails, runs out of Willpower, or until she accumulates five successes. Treat any failure on this roll as a dramatic failure. If she reaches five successes, she rides the wave. This functions identically to a normal frenzy, with all normal benefits. However, you may choose the Beast’s desire and specific target at the outset. This desire does not have to align with the provocation. For example, if Victoria risks frenzy because she’s starved, she might choose to kill Dominic instead of feeding. Normally, a frenzied Beast will not force its host to commit diablerie. However, a vampire riding the wave may choose diablerie as the desire.TorporOver time, through great injury, as result of feeding restrictions, or because of starvation, Kindred fall to the sleep of ages: torpor. This cold, dead slumber equalizes the young and the old, thinning the blood with time and leaving elders to awaken fresh and new. When one of the Kindred falls to torpor, she appears dead. Her skin tightens over her flesh and dries out. Her joints harden, and the top layer of her tissue turns to a faint, ashen dust. During her slumber, she experiences strange, nonsensical dreams that keep her mind active and exercised. Usually, this
106 Blood and SmokeHumanityKindred are not human. They were, once, but now they’re something entirely different. However, to blend in with mortals, to walk among the flock, Kindred must maintain perspective and understanding of their former lives. The Humanity trait reflects this perspective. Vampires who maintain high Humanity scores live side-by-side with mortals, and can relate to the living. Vampires with low Humanity scores grow distant and alien; they lose sight of what they once were, and more importantly, what they prey upon. For some Kindred, Humanity is a downward spiral. It’s a great tragedy that ends in monstrosity and destruction. For some, it’s a constant struggle to maintain ties and never lose sight. Most Kindred find a range of Humanity that suits them, a certain distance or closeness to the breathing world. This system replaces the Integrity system in The God-Machine Chronicle. Mortal characters who are Embraced replace Integrity with Humanity, and start with seven dots (regardless of their Integrity scores). These ratings are compatible. For example, if a Discipline affects a vampire character based on her Humanity rating, Integrity will work similarly on her mortal counterpart. The Humanity ScaleHumanity exists as a continuum from zero to ten dots. Vampire: the Requiem characters begin play with seven dots. Higher Humanity scores are possible, but difficult to maintain. Humanity level is reflected in a character’s behavior and appearance. As he sinks into depravity, he becomes less and less like the mortals around him. He becomes more a monster, more focused on survival than on abiding by the societal norms of the herd. Often, this presents as aloofness or detachment. The character simply ceases to relate to human mores and expectations. These descriptions are only guidelines; it’s up to you to determine how your character exhibits the path he walks. Also, there are minor Social modifiers listed. These modifiers apply to rolls relating to humans. Manipulating humans for food with Subterfuge or frightening them with Intimidation are not affected; but trying to understand a human’s emotional cues with the Empathy Skill would be affected. Note that these penalties do apply with Touchstones; inhumane vampires find establishing relationships with humans to be difficult, or even not worth the time.Ascetic (Humanity 9-10): A rare vampire with this degree of Humanity goes out of her way to immerse herself in mortal affairs, and to feed sensibly. She’s poised and confident in her dealings; she’s an expert in the way humans behave, feel, and think. She manages to think and act the way they do, in the way an expert method actor would. She appears as an iconic, idealized human. Gain a +2 die bonus to any rolls to relate to humans. Humane (Humanity 7-8): A vampire in this range of Humanity is either very good at maintaining her attachments, or she’s very new to the Danse Macabre. She has little difficulty blending in with humans. She remembers with perfectly clarity what mortal life was like. She remembers the way food tasted. She remembers the way sweat felt across her skin. She feels pain for those hurt by her actions and those of her kind. Balanced (Humanity 5-6): At this point, she’s been around the block. Most neonates and some ancilla fall into this range. She’s seen pain and anguish as result of her condition, and is beginning to accept it as part of existence. She still has no issue relating to mortals; she just recognizes that she’s never going to be one again. She’s selfish, and lies like second nature. She has a subtle, ashen pallor. Take a –1 die penalty on any roll to relate to humans. Weathered (Humanity 4): A weathered vampire has seen more death and devastation than most mortals will in a lifetime. Most ancilla fall into this range of Humanity. While not spree killers, a vampire at this level has taken lives, and understands that he probably will again in order to guarantee continued survival. He sees humans as fragile and temporary. He’s calculating and cunning, having a mind attuned to consequence. This shows in immediate behaviors. For example, he might avoid early morning social functions to avoid worst-case traffic on the way home. Take a –2 die penalty on any roll to relate to humans. Callous (Humanity 3): At this level, a callous vampire maintains a cynical and jaded world perspective. He’ll step over anyone and anything in the name of survival. Most elders fall into this range. Typically, he’ll take the safe route for the long haul. He’ll kill witnesses before risking their escape. By this point, Humanity takes its toll, and the vampire appears deathly or sickly. This appearance isn’t unnatural, per se, but it makes humans uncomfortable. Take a –3 die penalty on any roll to relate to humans. Monstrous (Humanity 2): A monstrous vampire is barely recognizable as human, unless he’s specifically acting the part and using the blush of life. He looks like a moving corpse, with dry flesh tightened over bones and a faint red hue to his eyes. He’s short-tempered, selfish to a fault, and will kill to suit minor interests and petty desires. Not only does he have difficulty dealing with people, he doesn’t want to. Most of the mortals in his life are servants and feeding stock, viewed as resources at best. Take a –5 die penalty on any roll to relate to humans. Animalistic (Humanity 1): A vampire this close to the Beast exists in a state of animalistic stoicism. She can speak and interact just like anyone else, but takes no action without intent. Words are but tools for the hunt. Every action is a step toward the next meal; nothing but blood is worth her time. While she could fake humanity with a bit of blood, she can’t be bothered, and instead looks like a corpse, a statue, a morbid doll. Crowds part when she walks through; her presence demands fright or obeisance. Your character cannot relate to humankind. Any such rolls use only a chance die. Draugr (Humanity 0): A character who reaches zero Humanity dots becomes draugr, lost to her Beast. She becomes a threat, no longer able to interact with society productively — Kindred or mortal. Nothing is sacred; draugr will not hesitate to shred the Traditions as a means of escape. Draugr are forever lost to their monstrous natures; only the vaguest rumors suggest they can be redeemed. In most cities, authorities kill draugr immediately and without mercy.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 107Some draugr are careful predators, acting with stealth and bestial cunning, or retaining ritualistic behaviors from their former lives. For example, a fallen Mekhet might set up clever ambushes and sleep in an old library, nesting among moldering books he can no longer read.Breaking PointsBreaking points are moments and experiences in a vampire’s Requiem that push her to risk detachment. Any time she experiences a breaking point, roll to resist detachment. For an event to constitute a breaking point, it must be applicable to her Humanity level, or lower. For example, a Humanity 5 character risks a breaking point if she commits manslaughter (Humanity 3 breaking point), but not if she’s rejected by a human (Humanity 8 breaking point). The listed breaking points are examples only. Add breaking points at Storyteller discretion, or shift these up or down to fit the situation. Typically, the more personal the event is, the lower level a breaking point it should be. If something is significantly distanced from the character, or she had no way to prevent it, it should be a Humanity level higher. Many reflect experiences that serve as reminders of the vampire’s state. For example, watching mortals eat a meal is a harsh reminder that mortal food no longer nourishes Kindred, and that it’s an experience forever denied to the Damned.Many breaking points reference human contact. This refers to interaction, usually verbal. While it does not have to be positive interaction, it should be human in nature, and meaningful. Jumping a derelict in an alley, feeding, and fleeing is not interaction. Nor is tying up an enemy’s ghoul and torturing her in a basement. However, the act of feeding the captive or finding the derelict a shelter for the night could be. Note that time unconscious in torpor does not count as time without human contact; torpor is its own breaking point.Note that breaking points do not occur while a character is in torpor. At the Storyteller’s discretion, discovering a missed Humanity 10 (Five Dice)One night without human contact. Lying in defense of the Masquerade.Spending more than one Vitae in a night.Humanity 9 (Five Dice) Watching humans eat a meal.Committing a superhuman feat of physical prowess.Feeding from the unwilling or unknowing.Urging another’s behavior with a Discipline.Spending an hour in the sun.Humanity 8 (Four Dice)Creating a ghoul.Rejected by a human.Riding the wave of frenzy.Depriving another of consent with a Discipline. Spending most of a day in the sun.Humanity 7 (Four Dice)One week active without human contact. Surviving something that would hospitalize a human.Injuring someone over blood.Humanity 6 (Three Dice) Falling into torpor. Feeding from a child.Reading your own obituary.Experiencing a car crash or other immense physical trauma.Humanity 5 (Three Dice) Two weeks active without human contact.Reaching Blood Potency 3.Death of a mortal family member.Joining a covenant to the point of gaining Status for it.Humanity 4 (Two Dice) Impassioned violence.Spending a year or more in torpor.Surviving a century.Accidentally killing.Humanity 3 (Two Dice) One month active without human contact.Reaching Blood Potency 6.Death of a mortal spouse or child.Impassioned killing. Humanity 2 (One Die) One year active without human contact.Premeditated killing.Seeing a culture that didn’t exist when you were alive.Surviving 500 years.Creating a revenant.Humanity 1 (Zero Dice) One decade active without human contact.Heinous, spree, or mass murder.Killing your Touchstone.Sample Breaking Points
108 Blood and Smokebreaking point could trigger a detachment roll, but this is fairly rare, as the experience of torpor prepares a vampire’s mind for the shock of a new world upon waking.DetachmentWhen reaching a breaking point, the character faces potential detachment: the loss of a Humanity dot. To resist detachment, roll the number of dice associated with the breaking point’s level. If the character has Touchstones, she can draw on additional dice. Willpower may not be spent to improve this dice pool. Any time your character faces a breaking point, take a Beat. Roll ResultsDramatic Failure: Not only does the character lose sight of her Humanity, she sees the breaking point as nothing of consequence whatsoever. In addition to losing a dot of Humanity, gain the Jaded Condition (see p. 304). Failure: Your character lets go of some of his mortal attachments, and moves toward monstrosity. In addition to losing a dot of Humanity, gain the Bestial, Competitive, or Wanton Condition as he revels in his selfishness. Success: Your character holds onto a scrap of empathy, despite the urge to let go. She does not lose Humanity, but gains the Bestial, Competitive, or Wanton Condition as her nature pushes her to withdraw. Exceptional Success: Not only does your character hold onto her concept of Humanity, she steps away from the conflict with renewed vigor. She takes the Inspired Condition (see p. 304). The inspiration relates to her newfound affinity for mortality.BanesWhen Kindred hit certain points in their detachment, they can turn their monstrosity inward, growing spiritual scars over their emotional wounds. When losing Humanity, a character can take a bane and a Beat. If he does so, he becomes unable to lose Humanity from that particular breaking point again. However, each bane causes a –1 die penalty to further detachment rolls, which speeds the Requiem’s downward spiral. Suggested Modifiers for Detachment RollsHave an attached Touchstone +2Have multiple attached Touchstones +3No attached Touchstones −2Protecting your Masquerade −1Protecting your Requiem +1A character may only have three banes. You may choose from the sample banes below, or create your own. As a rule, most banes use Humanity as part of their mechanics, and can affect Vitae or cause bashing damage. Sometimes, they use the inverse of Humanity, expressed as (10 – Humanity). Many banes provoke frenzy. A vampire cannot use more dice to resist a bane-provoked frenzy than she has Humanity dots.Banes are a player choice, but vampire characters themselves do not choose them or the transgressions they affect. Bells: Your character cannot stand the sound of bells, and it causes intense pain. This only happens in the presence of actual bells; recordings will not cause pain. Each minute she’s exposed to the sound of bells, she takes (10 – Humanity) dice worth of bashing damage, and is provoked to frenzy. Some vampires manifest this bane in response to hymns instead of bells. Blood of the Unwilling: Your character takes no sustenance from the blood of the unwilling or the unknowing. When feeding from an unwilling vessel, she gains no nourishment from the first few Vitae taken. This amount is equal to (10 – Humanity). Crossroads: Your character is confused when he knowingly passes through a crossroads. For the remainder of the scene, all his dice pools are capped by his Humanity dots. Face of Hunger: When your character finds himself hungry, it shows on his face and on his skin. His eyes grow red, and his skin pulls tight over his visage. He looks every bit the corpse. When he has less than five Vitae, his Humanity dots act as a cap on all his Social actions. Humanity also caps all dice pools to resist frenzy inspired by hunger. Grave Soil: Your character is tied to the soil of her place of death. If she does not sleep with at least a handful of dirt from her region of death, all her dice pools are capped by her Humanity for the next night. Hated by Beasts: Animals despise your character. They’ll put their backs up defensively, growl, hiss, or boast. Any attempts to deal with animals through Animal Ken or Animalism suffer a (10 – Humanity) penalty. Holy Day: Your character holds one day of the week holy. She cannot resist the daysleep, and cannot awaken during that day unless her body suffers damage equal to 10 – Humanity. Invitation: Your character cannot enter a private dwelling uninvited. If he does, he suffers bashing damage equal to (10 – Humanity). He cannot heal the damage as long as he remains inside. Open Wounds: Your character’s wounds stay open until she sleeps. She can heal Health levels with Vitae, but the wounds do not close until she’s undergone daysleep. Plague of Purity: Your character finds the pure of heart to be utterly repulsive. Any touch by a human with Integrity 8 or higher causes (10 – Humanity) bashing damage. Rat King/Queen: Your character attracts vermin. She’s always surrounded by rats, flies, cockroaches, or other creatures of plague. This causes discomfort and disgust in most mortals, causing her to fail any Social roll not related to the Intimidation Skill. She can send the vermin away for a number of minutes equal to her Humanity score with a Willpower point.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 109Repulsion: Your character finds a certain substance abhorrent. Choose this when taking the bane, but it should be something that is likely to appear in many homes. For example, garlic, salt, roses, or silver are all valid repulsions. She cannot come closer than (10 – Humanity) feet from the item without spending a point of Willpower. As well, if the object of repulsion enters a wound, it causes (10 – Humanity) dice of bashing damage.Symbols: Symbols of faith and devotion weaken your character. When touched by such a symbol, or when acting against someone brandishing such a symbol, his dice pools are limited by his Humanity dots. Webs: A spider’s webs cause your character great problems. Even a web from a small spider stops her in her tracks. Once she touches a web, breaking free requires breaking the web, which is treated as an item with Durability equal to (10 – Humanity). MeritsThese Merits are available to Kindred characters. If the prerequisites mention a covenant, the Merit requires a single dot of the appropriate Covenant Status to purchase. If the character changes or abandons their covenant, the Merit does not go away. Some covenants may take issue with former members sharing their secrets, however. See the Appendix (p. 288) for Merits specifically for mortal and ghoul characters in a Vampire: The Requiem chronicle. Sanctity of MeritsWhile Merits represent things within the game and your character, they’re really an out-of-character resource, a function of the character creation and advancement mechanics. These Merits often represent things that can go away. Retainers can be killed. Mentors can get impatient and stop dispensing wisdom. So while Merits may represent temporary facets of your character, Merit points continue to exist. At the end of any chapter where your character has lost Merits, you can replace them with another Merit.For example, your character has three-dot Retainer, a loyal dog, and an eldritch horror eats that dog out in the woods. At the end of that chapter, you may re-allocate those Retainer dots. You may choose to purchase Safe Place (two dots), to reflect your character’s choice to bunker down from the monster, and perhaps Direction Sense (one dot) so your character is less likely to get lost in those woods in the future. When the character leaves his Safe Place, you can replace those two dots with something else.When replacing a Merit, consider what makes sense in the story. Pursue the new Merit during the course of the chapter if possible, and make the new tie something less superficial than a dot or two on a sheet. With Storyteller permission, you may “cash in” a Merit voluntarily and replace it with Experiences. This should not be used as a way to purchase a Merit, take advantage of its benefits, and then cash it out for something else. If a Merit has run its course and no longer makes sense for your character, however, you may use those points elsewhere.Merits such as Ambidextrous, Eidetic Memory, and the various Fighting Style Merits reflect abilities and knowledge that your character has and therefore shouldn’t be cashed in or replaced. Then again, if an Ambidextrous character loses his left hand.…General Kindred MeritsAcute Senses (•)Effect: The vampire can see, smell, and hear at twice the distance and with twice the accuracy of an average, healthy mortal. The vampire’s senses of taste and touch are also twice as sensitive as those of the same hypothetical person.The vampire can perfectly identify any sensory stimulus she has experienced before; for example, the smell of a lover’s sweat, the texture of a rare fabric, or the sound of an individual’s scream.Add her Blood Potency to any roll to use her senses. This includes any rolls to remember and identify sensory details. Drawback: Her senses sometimes overwhelm her. Any time you roll an exceptional success on a roll relating to her senses, she gains the Obsession Condition for the stimulus, but instead of being Persistent, it lasts for a number of nights equal to your successes. Altar (•••)Prerequisites: Circle of the Crone Status •Effect: Your character is attuned to a mystical, bloody altar. She may have crafted it herself, or a covenmate may have designed it. In the presence of the altar, Acolytes may use the teamwork rules (see p. 173) when using Crúac rituals. However, double the time necessary to make the roll, and determine the time per roll by the lowest Crúac dots of the collective group. This allows vampires uninitiated in the secrets of Crúac to participate in rituals. Characters do not need dots in Crúac to act as supporting performers with the Altar Merit, but double the time between rolls if any participants have no Crúac dots whatsoever.Drawback: Unlike most Merits, three or more characters must purchase this Merit to gain its benefits. Each character contributes a single Merit dot to the total cost. Additional characters may purchase dots in the Altar, but to use the teamwork advantages, they must contribute. Anointed (••)Prerequisites: Lancea et Sanctum Status •Effect: Not all Sanctified are members of the clergy. Most are lay members. Those anointed under the damnation of Longinus
110 Blood and Smokewield his word like a firebrand. Once per chapter, roll Presence + Expression when preaching to a crowd. A small clique of listeners levies a –1 die penalty, a small crowd a –2, and a large crowd a –3. Listeners gain the Raptured Condition (see p. 305). Drawback: The character may not use this Merit on herself. Atrocious (•)Prerequisites: Cannot have the Cutthroat or Enticing MeritsEffect: Your character’s monstrous Beast dominates her personality. Her threats always ring true. Her very gaze inspires anger and fear. Any rolls to invoke the monstrous Beast gain the 8-again quality.Drawback: Your character does not get the 10-again quality on any rolls to invoke or resist the seductive or competitive Beasts.Attaché (•)Prerequisites: Invictus Status •Effect: Normally, Retainers (see p. 123) serve a couple of functions, represented by dice pools. They don’t normally allow a character to access other things represented by Social Merits. However, Invictus vampires with this Merit have Retainers of a more thoroughly loyal breed. Each Retainer gains any combination of the following Merit dots equal to the vampire’s Invictus Status: Contacts, Resources, or Safe Place. Drawback: While the Invictus may access these Merits, it must be done through an intermediary. So it might take a bit of time, or require a bit of red tape navigation to access. At very least it will require a few inconvenient phone calls. Bloodhound (••)Prerequisites: Wits •••Effect: Your character can discern the intricacies of blood by smelling it, as if he had tasted it. When using his Kindred senses to detect blood, to track by blood, or to pick out the details of blood, he only needs to smell a blood source.Cacophony Savvy (• to •••)Prerequisite: City Status •Effect: You have your finger on the pulse of the Kindred underground. You’re adept with the codes and cants that allow Kindred culture to flourish despite the Masquerade. Each level of Cacophony Savvy builds on the previous. This Merit assumes the character can read and deliver Cacophony messages.Drawback: The Cacophony is not a spectator sport. You can’t just consume; you must create. If your character does not regularly contribute news and gossip to the Cacophony, she falls out of touch. To become an active part of the Cacophony again, she must add something of value.Gettin’ Up (•): Your character can read the signs when she sees them. With an Intelligence + Streetwise roll, she can identify the intended message. She can identify further details, including the messenger’s clan, covenant, favored herd, and city of origin by taking a –1 die penalty for every detail she wishes to discern. Additional details come at Storyteller discretion. If the area surveyed is part of someone’s Feeding Grounds Merit, you can add their dot rating to your roll, and discern things the owner didn’t mean to communicate. For example, particularly pale junkies in the neighborhood might suggest that the owner feeds from addicts. Backpacker (••): Your character is privy to all the personal ads, magazine codes, tracts, and tagging locations to find the latest Kindred news. Any time new Kindred come to town, your character knows their favored feeding grounds and their common aliases within a week. Using Gettin’ Up, she can discern more personal information about them from the grapevine.Wearing a Hat (•••): Your character embodies honor among thieves. She’s a highly respected part of the Cacophony, and as a result, nothing happens without her knowledge. She’s a hub of local culture, and the first line of defense against vampire hunters by extension. Once per chapter, roll Wits + Politics. For each success, you can ask the Storyteller one of the following questions about the current state of affairs: • Who is on the way up?• Who is on the way out? • Where in the city is the Masquerade thinnest?• What mortal is closest to uncovering Kindred?• Where’s the best feeding in town?When acting on the answer, consider all rolls exceptional successes on three successes instead of five.Carthian Pull (•)Prerequisite: Carthian Status •Effect: Carthians know people. Being the covenant arguably most in touch with humanity, they tend to have the most numerous connections. Membership in the Movement can mean leveraging those connections. Each month, you can access a number of dots of the Allies, Contacts, Haven, and Herd Merits equal to your Carthian Status. Drawback: These Merits are not yours. They’re very temporary, very superficial. You don’t get a house from Haven dots; you get crash space for a couple days. Each use is a favor, and the Movement expects members to repay their favors.Claws of the Unholy (•)Prerequisite: Protean ••••Effect: A Gangrel’s claws are deadly and bestial; yours are downright unnatural. The vampire allows the Beast out of its cage and lets it punish all those around her. When wielding claws borne of Unnatural Aspect while in frenzy, this Merit takes effect. The weapon modifier for the claws becomes +0 aggravated. These claws ignore all armor not generated by Resilience.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 111Drawback: You may only use Claws of the Unholy while in frenzy or riding the wave. Once purchased, this modification is not optional; the character manifests Claws of the Unholy any time she’s frenzied. Close Family (•)Effect: Your character feels blood sympathy more keenly than most of her kind. Add +1 to all blood sympathy bonuses, and apply the 8-again quality to all blood sympathy rolls. As well, treat all relations as one step closer for the purposes of sympathy distances. Drawback: When you feel sympathy, you feel it hard. Any time you succeed on a blood sympathy roll, your character loses the ability to spend Willpower for bonus dice for the remainder of the scene, due to the distraction. Cutthroat (•)Prerequisites: Cannot have the Atrocious or Enticing MeritsEffect: Your character’s competitive Beast flows in her every action. Her smug bearing forces a desire to dominate or submit. Any rolls to invoke the competitive Beast gain the 8-again quality.Drawback: Your character does not get the 10-again quality on any rolls to invoke or resist the monstrous or seductive Beasts.Distinguished Palate (•)Effect: Your character can discern the subtle nuances in blood and Vitae. Consider any Taste of Blood roll (see p. 91)an exceptional success with only a single success. Drawback: When taking this Merit, choose a preferred feature in a vessel that comprises no more than one-tenth of the population. This may be a hair color, a blood type, or even a drug in his system. When feeding from any other mortal source, ignore the first point of Vitae ingested in a given scene, as nothing sates your character like her preferred meal.Dream Visions (•)Prerequisites: Must be MekhetEffect: Your character’s Mekhet blood touches on a level of universal interconnectedness that her mind cannot truly grasp. However, sometimes it gives her fleeting glimpses of insight and intuition. During the day, she dreams of what’s to come in vague symbols. Once per night, when she meets someone new or visits a new place, make a Blood Potency roll. If successful, ask one question to the Storyteller or the character’s player. The question must fit with a yes/no/maybe answer. The answer reflects the last day’s dreams. Drawback: This Merit may only be used once per person (and only on first meeting), and once per night. So, if she meets multiple new people, you must choose who the dreams were of.
112 Blood and SmokeDynasty Membership (• to •••)Prerequisite: Clan Status •Effect: Your character claims membership to a long-standing dynasty of Kindred. Her clan and city know her family’s exploits, and they often precede her. Each level of this Merit builds on the earlier abilities. Drawback: You must make your association known to take advantage of this Merit. Within certain crowds, throwing around a lineage could be more trouble than it’s worth. The dynasty must have at least three members.New Kid (•): You’re recognized within the dynasty, but not in an influential position. Once per chapter, you may add the Clan Status of the dynasty’s most senior member to a Social dice pool instead of your own. Exemplar (••): You’re afforded sway and respect within the dynasty. Against any who would respect or fear your dynasty, you may ignore the first Door in any Social engagement. Patriarch/Matriarch (•••): You’re acknowledged as a head of your dynasty. Once per chapter, you may make a demand of a dynasty member. They gain the Tasked Condition. If they fulfill the demand, gain a Beat. The task must be something that would take a full night’s work, or put the recipient in danger.Enticing (•)Prerequisites: Cannot have the Atrocious or Cutthroat MeritsEffect: Your character’s seductive Beast oozes with ease and confidence. Her smoky looks tantalize the imagination. Every movement of her hands makes promises. Any rolls to invoke the seductive Beast gain the 8-again quality.Drawback: Your character does not get the 10-again quality on any rolls to invoke or resist the monstrous or competitive Beasts.Feeding Grounds (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has fertile feeding grounds, whether officially granted or not. Dots in this Merit represent the ease of hunting in that territory. Add the dot rating to any hunting rolls, and to starting Vitae rolls (see p. 95). In addition, add the dot rating to any predatory aura conflicts on her territory. Drawback: Territory doesn’t maintain itself. Trespassers must not go uncontested, or your hold on the area falters.Friends in High Places •Prerequisites: Invictus Status •Effect: The Invictus have their fingers in a lot of pies…but any one vampire only has so many fingers. So the vampires of the First Estate do not just leverage their personal connections — they leverage each other’s. An Invictus member can always do a little horse trading.Each month, your character can automatically open a number of Doors equal to her status dots. The person being persuaded must be acting on behalf of an organization. You could persuade the fire chief not to investigate a series of arsons at your rival’s havens, but couldn’t convince him to give you a personal loan.Drawback: The influence the character drew upon must come from a specific Invictus member…and your character now owes him a favor.Haven (• to •••••)Prerequisite: Safe Place •Effect: A good haven is not only safe from the sun, but also familiar and comforting. The dot rating reflects your character’s affinity for his home and its defenses against the sun’s intrusion. A low rating might mean an unreliable apartment with boarded windows. A high rating may mean an ancestral home with no windows and an extensive system of vaults. Add your Haven dots to any Humanity rolls to notice danger while sleeping, and any Stamina + Resolve rolls to remain awake. As well, add it to any Kindred senses (see p. 90) rolls within. Drawback: Losing a Haven is a breaking point at Humanity 8, minus its dot rating. A Haven must be tied to a Safe Place Merit (see p. 123). Like a Safe Place, a coterie may share a Haven Merit. Each member that wishes to benefit must invest Merit dots in both the Safe Place and the Haven.Herd (• to •••••)Effect: Your character cultivates cliques of mortals willing and eager for the Kiss. Each week, you can draw on a number of Vitae equal to twice the Merit’s dot rating. This requires no roll, only a quick interlude. Taking more than that amount requires normal hunting rolls. Drawback: Addicts need their fix. Sometimes, they demand attention. If neglected, they’ll withdraw. Your character must have at least minor interactions with her Herd before they’ll give blood freely. Honey Trap (•)Effect: Your character’s blood not only bonds, but it invigorates. When a vampire tastes your character’s Vitae, she regains a point of Willpower. If this results in a new bond, or steps up an existing bond, she also takes a Beat.Invested (•)Prerequisite: Invictus Status •Effect: In the Invictus, you get out what you put in. Through doing favors and making herself noticed, your character has gotten back plenty. Divide dots equal to your Invictus status in the Herd, Mentor, Resources, and Retainers Merits. You may distribute them as you like. These dots can be added to existing Merit dots, or added upon later. If she loses dots of Status, the dots granted by this Merit go away as well.Drawback: These advantages came from the covenant. They’re not only known, but they’re a matter of covenant scrutiny. Rivals may call whether your character deserves them into question.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 113Kindred StatusWithin Kindred society, there exist three types of Status: City, Clan, and Covenant. Each functions as the Status Merit on p. 123, within its purview. City Status allows its advantages within the scope of the assigned city. Clan Status only functions within its designated clan, and Covenant Status similarly within the chosen covenant. City Status reflects a vampire’s sway in the city, whether official or unofficial. There’s no specific dot rating tied to a given position. For instance, a Prince may have three dots of City Status, if the city doesn’t respect his authority as much as the Sheriff with five dots. Clan Status reflects notoriety and recognition within the clan. Typically, a character with high Clan Status is iconic within the clan. A character with five dots of Ventrue Status is whom most Kindred think of when they speak of the clan Ventrue. Kindred recognize a low-Status character as a frequent collaborator within clan circles.A character may not gain Status in a clan to which she does not belong.Covenant Status is generally tied to positions and direct authority within covenant structure. A character with five dots of Covenant Status is a regional leader within the covenant, a character with one dot has minor responsibilities to their organization of choice. Additionally, each covenant has available Merits that scale depending on Covenant Status dots.A character could theoretically gain Status within multiple covenants. Most of the covenants will allow members to dabble in other organizations, so long as they don’t share secrets. The Ordo Dracul, for example, will not stop a member from attending Sanctified mass. But the moment she shares her knowledge of the Coils, she’ll find her Requiem cut abruptly short. Her combined dots in one type of Status (City, Clan, or Covenant) cannot exceed five, and she may never have as many dots in her affiliated group as she does to the group to which she belongs. Kiss of the Succubus (•)Prerequisite: Must be DaevaEffect: All Kindred can evoke lustful, passionate reactions with a bite. The Daeva’s bite is downright addicting. Her Kiss causes the Addicted Condition in mortals as well as the Swooning Condition (for Addicted, see p. 301; for Swooning, see p. 306).Drawback: This gift is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it keeps blood dolls coming back. On the other, they won’t stay away. Lineage (•)Prerequisite: Clan Status •Effect: You come from strong stock. Your sire’s well known, and his influence bleeds onto your interactions. Once per chapter, this Merit can represent a single dot of one of the following Merits: Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Resources, or Status. The Merit must be one your sire may have possessed.Drawback: Calling on your sire’s reputation taxes his social capital. He may ask for repayment for using his name.Lorekeeper (•)Prerequisites: Lancea et Sanctum Status •Effect: The Spear is tasked with the acquisition and maintenance of history and mystical secrets. Most devoted members of the covenant establish and maintain libraries. Since most of this knowledge has to pass through mortal hands, the Sanctum also tends to attract those, likeminded, who wish to surround themselves with ancient secrets. When a member of the Lancea et Sanctum with this Merit buys the Library Merit (see p. 121), she also receives dots in the Retainers and Herd Merits, divided however she chooses. Drawback: The Retainers and Herd afforded by this Merit are drawn in by the lure of forbidden knowledge. To maintain these advantages, the vampire must be willing to let slip at least some of that information to her mortal retinue. Unfortunately, sometimes mortal librarians aren’t quite as zealous about defending their secrets. The Mother-Daughter Bond (•)Prerequisites: Circle of the Crone Status •Effect: The Circle exists through tribulation and mentorship. Without tight-knit bonds, the Circle would never have survived its tumultuous early years. When a member of the Circle with this Merit purchases the Mentor Merit, that Mentor is protected by the True Friend Merit (see p. 124). The vampire does not have to purchase True Friend to take this advantage. Drawback: Strong bonds go both ways. The mentor is likely to have stronger requirements than most teachers, and will require a substantial amount of the vampire’s time. More importantly, she’ll demand loyalty, if not monogamy. Night Doctor Surgery (•••)Prerequisite: Carthian Status ••Effect: Carthians have adapted a bit of real-world surgery and a little body horror into a series of morbid reconstruction techniques to help injured Kindred heal. Night Doctor Surgery helps bones reset, and speeds the knitting of flesh. With an hour of treatment, roll Intelligence + Medicine. Each success converts one point of lethal damage to bashing. Alternatively, three successes can convert one point of aggravated damage to lethal damage. Failure means the wounds remain; dramatic failure upgrades three points of bashing to lethal, or two lethal to aggravated. With Storyteller discretion, this Merit and Willpower expenditure may be used over time to make changes to facial appearance. Drawback: Knowledge of Night Doctor Surgery affords a great responsibility. If your identity is known, the Movement will call on your services frequently. For this reason, most Night Doctors use pseudonyms (usually a letter, like Doctor H), performing their services while masked. You cannot perform
114 Blood and SmokeNight Doctor Surgery on yourself. You may only make one attempt to treat a given injury.Speaker for the Silent (•••)Prerequisite: Dynasty Membership •, Invictus Status •Effect: Any Kindred may be part of a dynastic house, but the Invictus take dynasty membership very seriously. Some members receive training to channel the minds of torpid dynasty members. With this Merit, the character can choose to act as a medium for a torpid elder’s consciousness. While possessed, the Speaker is aware of what occurs around him, but the torpid Kindred has control of his body, and can speak through him. The torpid Kindred retains no access to her Disciplines while possessing a Speaker. At any time, the Speaker can spend a point of Willpower to eject the torpid mind. The torpid Kindred can relinquish her control at will.Pack Alpha (•)Prerequisite: Must be GangrelEffect: You’re pack-minded. Your blood draws to blood. You may designate a coterie of Kindred and ghouls as your pack. Every Gangrel has a different method for the designation. Some anoint with blood. Some have hazing rituals. When the pack takes teamwork actions, the supporting characters gain the 8-again quality on their rolls. The anchor character does not, but still adds dice equal to the others’ successes. Removing a pack member must be done by force. You must cause lethal damage in one of their last three Health boxes, then exile them from your presence for at least a week.Drawback: When a member of your pack defies you, you must make an example of them or lose a point of Willpower. Unnatural Affinity (• to •••••)Effect: Your character can take nourishment from the blood of some of the stranger creatures of the World of Darkness. Each dot of this Merit allows your character to gain sustenance from one type of supernatural creature. This may mean werewolves, ghosts, mummies, zombies, or stranger things still. This blood counts as Kindred Vitae for the purposes of feeding restrictions.Drawback: This advantage does not inherently mean the character is (more) able to feed from the chosen subject. For example, ghosts exist in an ethereal state, and don’t have physical blood. Werewolves are notoriously difficult to feed from for more practical reasons that often end in Final Death. If you take this Merit, work with your Storyteller to determine how your character might feed from these monsters. Swarm Form (••)Prerequisite: Protean •••Effect: When taking the Beast’s Skin, some Gangrel can instead become a swarm of small creatures: Size 0 or Size 1 animals. The character may perceive through any of the senses of any individual creature in the swarm, but the swarm acts as a single entity.The swarm may spread over five yards or meters per dot of Blood Potency. Creatures beyond that range die and rapidly decompose. The swarm moves at the vampire’s Speed, modified for the creatures’ Size, in any logical direction.The swarm limits visibility and hearing, and causes panic in all those present. Everyone within the swarm’s area suffers the persistent Distracted Condition (see p.302) until they get away. With Storyteller discretion, a swarm may have other features suited to the swarm animal. For example, rats should be better at biting through barricades. The swarm resists most harm. Roll attacks against the swarm as normal, but after factoring armor and other modifiers, the swarm only takes one point of damage of the appropriate type at most, or two points of damage with an exceptional success. Fire, sunlight, explosions, and other large-scale threats cause normal harm to the swarm, which is affected by banes as normal. To attack those within her swarm, roll Strength + Brawl, ignoring Defense. Divide the damage however you wish among those inside. Apply a victim’s armor to the damage normally. The damage is lethal (bashing to Kindred). Alternately, a success may instead allow the vampire to take one Vitae from a victim. Secret Society Junkie (•)Prerequisites: Ordo Dracul Status •Effect: The Ordo Dracul exist within one of the most secret of secret societies. But many of its members participate in other such organizations in mortal (or other) spheres. Members of such secret societies tend to draw toward the Dragon, like a moths to a flame. When the vampire takes Status or Mystery Cult Initiation (see p. 121) reflecting non-Kindred organizations, she also gains Herd dots equal to the Merit. Sworn (•)Prerequisites: Ordo Dracul Status •Effect: Your character is not only a member of the Ordo Dracul, she’s sworn to serve one of its branches. When taking this Merit, choose to which faction she belongs (the Axe, the Dying Light, or Mysteries typically). She gains dots equal to her Covenant Status to split between the Mentor and Retainer Merits. These reflect teachers and wards within the faction. She can swap these Merits out between chapters, as she receives new assignments.Sworn of the Axe must defend the sanctity of the Order’s secrets. They’re the soldiers and assassins expected to clean up any leaks. If a Dragon leaks knowledge of the Coils, they can expect a visit from the Sworn of the Axe. Sworn of the Dying Light act as the research and development wing of the Ordo Dracul. The Sworn dedicate themselves to learning, teaching, and creating Coils. Sworn of the Mysteries are the guiding hands of the Order as a whole. They make sweeping decisions determining the
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 115covenant’s political and social directions. They’re expected to know the affairs of all local chapter houses.Drawback: Being Sworn is no easy task. It means being tied inexorably to the covenant, with deep and time-demanding responsibilities. Your character cannot go two full nights without devoting at least some time to covenant affairs, or she’ll be punished. I Know a Guy (•)Prerequisites: Carthian Status •Effect: When Carthians make Allies (see p. 118), their covenant acts as a sort of support network that bolsters the efficiency of those allies. Once per story, a Carthian may access temporary Retainer dots equal to their Allies. These Retainers act in the Carthian’s interest, just like any other Retainers. (Since Allies gained with Carthian Pull don’t really belong to the character as a Merit, they don’t count for purposes of I Know A Guy.)Drawback: These Retainers represent the Allies group in question, and will serve its interests first and foremost. If the Carthian wants them to do something contrary to the group’s interest, she’ll need to manipulate, threaten, or otherwise risk her relationship with her Allies. Touchstone (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has multiple Touchstones. Each dot in the Touchstone Merit allows for an additional Touchstone. Look to the Touchstone chart for which Humanity dot each new Touchstone is applied to. For more on Touchstones, see p. 87. Drawback: Losing attachment with Touchstones will speed the loss of Humanity. As well, if your character’s last Touchstone dies or is destroyed, your character will feel the call of torpor. Undead Menses (••)Effect: Throughout history, various cultures attributed mystical significance to the menstrual cycle. Many of these Multiple TouchstonesTouchstone Merit Associated Humanity0 dots 6• 5•• 4••• 3•••• 2••••• 1myths carried stigmas against menses, due to the unhealthy fears of men in power. With this Merit, your character still produces menstrual blood. Once per night, she can produce a viscous, dark blood. If she uses this blood in casting a Crúac ritual, she benefits from the 8-again quality. If she touches it to a person before affecting them with a Discipline, they suffer her Blood Potency as a penalty to his Resistance. Drawback: The character must identify as female. If she draws forth her Undead Menses multiple times in an evening, each beyond the first causes her a level of aggravated damage. As well, any attempts to identify her by her menstrual blood gain a +5 die bonus.Unsettling Gaze (•)Prerequisites: Must be NosferatuEffect: All Haunts have an unsettling effect. Your character’s Beast oozes with terror. When she evokes the monstrous Beast (see p. 91), she unsettles her target deeply and makes him question himself. Any time she infects a victim with the Bestial Condition and scores an exceptional success, she also forces a breaking point if the victim has a higher Humanity (or Integrity) than hers. Drawback: Forcing a breaking point in another is also a breaking point for your character if her Humanity is 3 or higher. Where the Bodies Are Buried ••Prerequisites: Invictus Status ••Effect: The Conspiracy of Silence covers up a lot of secrets…and your character’s been quietly keeping track. A number of times equal to your Invictus Status per story, you can ask one of the following questions about another vampire whose name and covenant affiliation you know:• Who would this vampire run to if he were in trouble?• Who is this vampire’s most frequent vessel?• What is this vampire’s main source of income?• Who is this vampire’s closest living family member?• Has this vampire covered up the murder of a human?Drawback: Digging into this information attracts attention. At least one fellow member of the Invictus will know you were investigating the vampire.Carthian LawCarthian Law Merits stand as the Carthian Movement’s edge in Kindred society. Each affords the Carthian certain advantages pertaining to the recognized law of the city. In many cases, this law did not come from the Carthians, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use it to their advantage. Carthian Law gives Kindred law a sort of metaphysical weight which prevents a city’s residents from breaching protocol. Carthians have learned to leverage that, making them valuable to even cities without a Carthian government.
116 Blood and SmokeLex Terrae (••)Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••, Feeding Ground •Effect: Territory is bond. Feeding ground is sacrosanct. Any blood poached from your character’s Feeding Ground is tainted for Kindred she has not specifically allowed. When next a poacher sleeps, the blood dissolves in his gullet. When he wakes, he violently retches, taking one bashing damage per Vitae lost. As well, his lips and mouth stain with black streaks that paint him as a poacher. These marks last for one week.Drawback: This Merit requires a clearly-defined and publicly announced feeding ground. Mandate from the Masses (•••••)Prerequisites: Carthian Status •••••Effect: Carthians wield consensus the way a cop wields a baton. With the power of the Movement behind her, a ranking Carthian can call on the will of her people to strike weakness into the Movement’s opposition. With her words and the mandate, she strips a Kindred enemy’s blood down to nothingness. To enact this law, your character must make a clear and direct admonishment against one of the Movement’s enemies. Cross a dot of Willpower off the Carthian’s sheet. She must also garner the support of others of the Movement for a vote — from both Storyteller characters and players’ characters. If the vote favors the admonishment, add the total dots of Carthian Status in support (including the user’s five). For every five dots, reduce the victim’s Blood Potency by one dot. If this reduces him to zero dots, he effectively becomes a revenant (see p. 94 for rules on revenants). Drawback: The Willpower dot (belonging to the vampire who invoked the mandate) and Blood Potency (belonging to the victim) only come back if the victim flees the city or meets Final Death. If the Carthian meets Final Death, the victim immediately regains his lost Blood Potency. A single vampire may only be victim to one instance of this Merit at a time.Right of Return (••)Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••, City Status •Effect: This somewhat rare Merit allows a Carthian to work within another covenant without fear of her covenant’s ostracism. After all, Carthians aim for human solutions, and nothing is more human than the ability to adapt and socialize. With this Merit, the character’s Carthian Status does not count toward her normal limitations on multiple Covenant Status Merits. She can have as many as five dots of the Covenant Status Merit, not counting her Carthian Status. While individual characters may oppose your character’s cosmopolitan membership practices, she’s adept at defending them. In any Social Maneuvering with members of a covenant she claims Status in, treat her impressions as one step better (see p. 173 for more on Social Actions). Drawback: Kindred remain ever paranoid, particularly with a Carthian in their midst. Every step she takes receives the utmost scrutiny. Your character loses the 10-again quality on rolls to hide suspicious behavior from members of her other covenants. Strength of Resolution (•)Prerequisites: Carthian Status •Effect: A Carthian stands resolute in the face of that which would force her to violate the law. Add her Carthian Status to any dice pool to contest a Discipline or other supernatural power which would coax her to violate acknowledged city law. Plausible Deniability (••••)Prerequisites: Carthian Status •••Effect: Carthians don’t break laws; they defy laws. Influential Carthians can throw law to the wind, then laugh it off with an argument about the definition of the word “is.” Any attempt to use a Discipline or other supernatural power to prove your character’s guilt in breach of city law or Tradition automatically fails. She cannot be forced to confess by any means, and attempts to detect her honesty through mundane means suffer her Carthian Status as a penalty. She exhibits no stains on her aura from diablerie. Drawback: It’s one thing to deny the truth. It’s another to deny the truth to witnesses. You lose the ability to use your City Status and Carthian Status dots in any Social rolls against anyone who knows for certain of your character’s guilt, and opposes her.Invictus OathsInvictus Oaths are the First Estate’s ace in the hole, its way of establishing and maintaining a rigid and effective hierarchy. An Invictus Notary officiates Oaths; a character with the Notary Merit can preside over any Oath, so long as the participants meet the prerequisites for the Merit. Recognized and manumitted Invictus must have at least one active Oath. This is to say Invictus require the presence of a Notary for their induction.Each Oath is a two-way street, with two active participants: the liege and vassal. The vassal must purchase the Oath Merit to gain its advantages; the liege does not. When swearing an Oath, the participants must define terms in addition to the Oath’s effects. Usually, they swear for a finite time, often a year and a day. Terms include conditions for violation, which end the contract (and the Oath’s effects) immediately. Unless otherwise noted, the vassal does not have to be Invictus; in fact, most are not. In rare cases, ghouls or other mortals enter Oaths. Most Notaries refuse to preside over such agreements.Typically, Oaths are temporary. Merit dots revert when the Oath ends; see The Sanctity of Merits on p. 109. Notary (••)Prerequisites: Invictus Status •••Effect: The Invictus appointed your character a Notary, a scholar of Oaths. She presides over Oath agreements. Because of your standing as an arbiter of the status quo, Invictus may not use their Invictus Status in rolls against you. As well, each
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 117month, you may request access to a single dot of Allies, Contacts, Herd, Mentor, or Resources, granted by the covenant at large.Drawback: Invictus are deathly serious about the sanctity of Oaths. If you’re caught knowingly administering an unwilling Oath, or Oath a non-Invictus as liege in an agreement, the Invictus will remove you from the Estate. Usually, this removal comes through Final Death. Oath of Action (••••)Effect: With this Oath, a vassal swears to perform a service to his liege. The service must be a difficult task with definite criteria for accomplishment or failure. At the time of the swearing, both parties agree upon one of the liege’s Disciplines. The vassal gains access to that Discipline. The liege’s Blood Potency increases by one. This Oath stands as a rare exception to bloodline Disciplines: a vassal may temporarily access a liege’s bloodline gift.If the vassal accomplishes the task, the Oath ends and the liege suffers aggravated damage equal to the Discipline dots granted. If the vassal fails the task or a month passes, he suffers the damage instead. While not uncommon, some domains consider a liege’s interference in the task to be bad form. The liege does not lose access to the Disicpline.Drawback: A character may be part of only one Oath of Action at a time, as vassal or liege.Oath of Fealty (•)Prerequisites: Invictus Status •Effect: This most basic Oath establishes a foundation of trust within the Invictus. The vassal may draw a number of Vitae from his liege equal to his Invictus Status in a given week. This Vitae transfers mystically over any distance, and replenishes the vassal’s pool without risk of Vitae addiction or blood bond. The liege always knows if the vassal lies to her, in voice or in writing.Drawback: A vassal may only owe fealty to one liege.Oath of Penance (•••)Effect: This Oath is a form of apology from a vassal to an aggrieved liege. For the agreed-upon term, the liege receives every tenth Vitae the vassal ingests. This Vitae comes over any distance, without risk of blood bond or addiction, and counts as Kindred Vitae. Some ancient Invictus use this Oath to skirt their need for Kindred blood, by establishing massive networks of “punished” vassals. During the same period, the vassal becomes immune to the liege’s Discipline effects.Drawback: While a vassal is paying penance, she may not gain the benefits of any other Oath. She retains their drawbacks.Oath of Serfdom (••)Effect: This Oath is a contract between a landlord and a tenant. In Invictus domains, Princes often use this Oath as the go-to for granting territory. Young Invictus refer to this practice as “castling.” Oath of Serfdom agreements typically involve “red rent,” a certain blood tithe given to the landlord regularly. While in her granted land or when defending her liege, the vassal gains access to a dot of Celerity, Resilience, or Vigor, chosen at the swearing of the Oath. She must still pay relevant activation costs. As well, she instinctively knows when another creature with the predatory aura enters her territory, and from what direction. If she knows the trespasser, she can identify him. The liege gains the vassal’s Feeding Ground Merit dots in any rolls against her. As well, he becomes immune to blood bonds from the vassal.Kindred Fighting MeritsThe Danse Macabre provides mechanisms to avoid overt violence between Kindred. However, even the most civilized Kindred cities are far deadlier than their mortal counterparts. Despite a façade of nicety, Kindred society holds numerous violent traditions. From the Invictus rite of Monomacy, to a Carthian jumping in ceremony, violence is far more commonplace than anyone wants to admit. These Merits reflect specific tricks vampires developed to kill one another efficiently. Kindred Dueling (Style, • to •••••)Prerequisites: Fighting Finesse, Composure •••, Weaponry ••Effect: Your character is not only a competent fighter, but also one trained specifically to take advantage of Kindred variables in a fight. Use of Kindred dueling requires an edged weapon. While humans could theoretically learn some of these tricks, the practical experience required could prove deadly. Note that Kindred Dueling abilities may not be used together. If you’re using Hamstring, you cannot benefit from Carving as well. Hamstring (•): With a well-placed tendon strike, you can briefly cripple a vampire’s ability to augment their physical prowess with Vitae. By targeting a limb (and taking the penalty to do so), your successful strike can deny that limb from the benefits of Physical Intensity (see p. 91) for a turn. The rest of the body may still use those advantages. Taunt (••): You know the way the Beast works, and how to taunt it with short, shallow swipes. Before you roll, remove a number of dice from your pool no greater than your Weaponry dots. Make your roll. If the attack succeeds, the victim must roll to resist frenzy, with a penalty equal to the number of dice you removed. Carving (•••): When you strike, you curve the blade hard and strike to pull the flesh apart, making it harder to heal in the heat of the moment. When Carving, your weapon’s damage rating deals lethal damage to Kindred instead of bashing. Pincushion (••••): You hit deep, intending to lodge your weapon in its victim. If you choose to leave your weapon in the victim on a successful strike, the victim cannot heal the wound with Vitae. You may remove the weapon as a reflexive action. If anyone else wishes to remove it, he can attempt a Strength + Stamina roll, minus the damage caused, as an instant action.
118 Blood and SmokeSpray (•••••): You cut to remove mass from the body, and by extension, blood. Sacrifice your Defense for the turn to use this maneuver. On a successful attack roll, you can choose to remove Vitae from your opponent instead of Health levels. You can divide Health levels of damage and Vitae in any combination after the roll.Riding the Wave (Style, • to •••••)Prerequisites: Composure •••, Resolve •••Effect: Your character runs with her Beast, and knows how to use it to her advantage. She’s turned riding the wave into a raw, primal art. These maneuvers may only be used while riding the wave. They cannot be used in a normal frenzy, or outside of frenzy.Ravage (•): Due to your character’s connection to her Beast, her fangs become horrendous weapons. They look no different, but her Beast knows how to use them with the utmost efficiency. While riding the wave, they become 1L weapons when used in a bite attack.Primal Strength (••): Your character’s Beast blasts outward in short bursts, in order to accomplish quick feats of strength. When lifting, jumping, or destroying objects as an instant action, double the Strength bonus aquired while in frenzy. In the Zone (•••): When attempting to leash the Beast and ride the wave, your character still operates at peak efficiency. She still has to spend Willpower points in order to make rolls to ride the wave, but those Willpower points also give a +3 die bonus to any action taken in the turn. Unyielding (••••): Your character rides the wave frequently; it ceases to be taxing on her mental reserves. After a scene where she successfully rides the wave, she recovers any Willpower spent to initiate the ride. Animal Grace (•••••): Your character dodges and strikes as fluidly as an animal, with confidence and awareness. When spending Willpower to attack or defend, gain both benefits. Add a +2 die bonus to Defense, and a +3 die bonus to attack rolls. Human MeritsAny vampire can possess these Merits, but they’re also available to and relatively common choices for players portraying mortal characters.For additional Merits available to all characters, see p. 158of The God-Machine Chronicle.For Merits specific to mortals and ghouls, see p. 298.Allies(• to •••••)Effect: Allies help your character. They might be friends, employees, associates, or people your character has blackmailed. Each instance of this Merit represents one type of ally. This could be an individual, or the members of an organization, society, or clique. Examples include a covenant, the police, a secret society, organized crime, unions, local politics, and the academic community. Each purchase has its own rating. Your character might have Allies (Masons) ••, Allies (Carter Crime Family) •••, Allies (Carthian Movement) ••••, and Allies (Catholic Church) •. Each dot represents a layer of influence in the group. One dot would constitute small favors and passing influence. Three could offer considerable influence, such as the overlooking of a misdemeanor charge by the police. Five dots allows favors that stretch the limits of the organization’s influence, as its leaders put their own influence on the line for the character. This could include things such as ignoring massive insider trading or fouling up a felony investigation. No matter the request, it has to be something that organization could accomplish. The Storyteller assigns a rating between one and five to any favor asked. A character can ask for favors that add up to her Allies rating without penalty in one chapter. If she extends her influence beyond that, her player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies, with a penalty equal to the favor’s rating. If the roll is successful, the group does as requested. Whether the roll fails or succeeds, the character loses a dot of Allies. This dot may return at the end of the chapter. On a dramatic failure, the organization resents her and seeks retribution. On an exceptional success, she doesn’t lose the dot even temporarily. One additional favor a character can ask of her Allies is to block another character’s Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Retainer, or Status (if she knows the character possesses the relevant Merit). The rating is equal to the Merit dots blocked. As before, no roll is necessary unless the target’s Merit exceeds the character’s Allies. If the block succeeds, the blocked character cannot use the Merit during the same chapter. Alternate Identity (•,••, or •••)Effect: Your character has established an alternate identity. The level of this Merit determines the amount of scrutiny it can withstand. At one dot, the identity is superficial and unofficial. For example, your character uses an alias with a simple costume and adopts an accent. She hasn’t established the necessary paperwork to even approach a bureaucratic background check, let alone pass. At two dots, she’s supported her identity with paperwork and identification. It’s not liable to stand up to extensive research, but it’ll turn away private investigators and internet hobbyists. At three dots, the identity can pass thorough inspection. The identity has been deeply entrenched in relevant databases, with subtle flourishes and details to make it seem real even to trained professionals. The Merit also reflects time the character has spent honing the persona. At one or two dots, she gains a +1 die bonus to all Subterfuge rolls to defend the identity. At three dots, she gains a +2 die bonus. This Merit can be purchased multiple times, each time representing an additional identity. Anonymity (• to •••••)Prerequisites: Cannot have FameEffect: Your character lives off the grid. She could have been dead for decades, making new identification difficult. This means purchases must be made with cash or falsified credit
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 119cards. She avoids any official authoritative influence in her affairs. Any attempts to find her by paper trail suffer a –1 die penalty per dot purchased in this Merit. Drawback: Your character cannot purchase the Fame Merit. This also may limit Status purchases, if the character cannot provide sufficient identification for the roles she wishes to take. Area of Expertise (•)Prerequisite: Resolve •• and one Skill Specialty Effect: Your character is uncommonly specialized in one area. Choose a Specialty to assign to this Merit. Forgo the +1 die bonus afforded by a Specialty in exchange for a +2 die bonus. Barfly (••)Prerequisite: Socialize ••Effect: Your character is a natural in the Rack and can procure an open invitation wherever she wishes. Whereas most characters would require rolls to blend into social functions they don’t belong in, she doesn’t; she belongs. Subtract her Socialize from any rolls to identify her as an outsider. Contacts (•)Effect: Contacts provide your character with information. This Merit can be taken multiple times; each instance represents a sphere or organization with which the character can garner information. For example, a character with three dots of Contacts might have Bloggers, Drug Dealers, and Vampire Hunters for connections. Contacts do not provide services, only information. This may be face-to-face, by email or telephone, or even by séance in some strange instances. Garnering information via Contacts requires a Manipulation + Social Skill roll, depending on the method the character uses. The Storyteller should give a bonus or penalty to the roll, depending on the following factors: how relevant the information is to that particular Contact, whether accessing the information is dangerous, and whether the character has maintained good relations with or done favors for the Contact. These modifiers should range from a –3 die penalty to a +3 die bonus in most cases. If successful, the Contact provides the information. One use of a Contact is to dig up dirt on another character. A Contact can find another character’s Social Merits and any relevant Conditions (Embarrassing Secret is a prime example). If someone attempts to block Contacts with the Allies Merit, add up all Contacts dots to determine the effective rating, to a maximum of five.Double Jointed (••)Prerequisite: Dexterity •••Effect: Your character might have been a contortionist or spent time practicing yoga. She can dislodge joints when need
120 Blood and Smokebe. She automatically escapes from any mundane bonds without a roll. When grappled, subtract her Dexterity from any rolls to overpower her as long as she’s not taking any aggressive actions.Etiquette (• to •••••)Prerequisites: Composure •••, Socialize ••Your character knows her way around society, customs, and traditions. More importantly, she can use this talent to make or break reputations. This Merit applies to any social interactions where etiquette, style, poise, and reputation carry weight, and uses the Social Maneuvering rules on p. 173.Bless His Heart (•): Your character’s words are always wellconsidered. No matter how vile, the things she says come off as defensible and respectful. When a character engages yours in a Social interaction, you may opt to use your character’s Socialize score instead of the lower of her Resolve and Composure to determine her starting Doors. Losing Your Religion (••): When your character lets loose and insults someone, she leaves mouths agape. When tearing down a target verbally, use 8-again, and take a +2 die bonus to the roll. Afterwards, move the interaction one step down on the impressions chart. In High Cotton (•••): Your character cultivates standing and respect, and carries it like a knight wears armor. You may apply one relevant Status or Fame Merit to rolls to contest Social interactions. Other Merits may apply with Storyteller permission.Half-Cocked (••••): Your character is always prepared. On the other hand, others are not. In a new Social interaction, if the impression is good, excellent, or perfect, ignore the subject’s Resolve and Composure on the first roll. Grace Under Fire (•••••): While your character may not always win, she never looks bad. If a character opens all her Doors, and you opt to offer an alternative, his player chooses three Conditions. You choose which one your character receives.Fame (• to •••)Effect: Your character is recognized within a certain sphere for a certain skill, or because of some past action, or just a stroke of luck. This can mean favors and attention, but it can also mean negative attention and scrutiny. This can tax the Masquerade if one’s not careful. When choosing the Merit, define what your character is known for. One dot reflects local recognition or reputation within a confined subculture. Two dots means regional recognition by a wide swath of people. Three dots means worldwide recognition to anyone who might have been exposed to the source of the fame. Each dot adds a die to any Social rolls among those who are impressed by your character’s celebrity.Drawback: Any rolls to find or identify the character enjoy a +1 die bonus per dot of the Merit. If the character has Alternate Identity, she can mitigate this drawback. A character with Fame cannot have the Anonymity Merit. Fast-Talking (• to •••••)Prerequisites: Manipulation •••, Subterfuge ••Your character talks circles around listeners. She speaks a mile a minute and often leaves her targets reeling, but nodding in agreement. Always Be Closing (•): With the right leading phrases, your character can direct a mark to say what she wants, when she wants. This trips the mark into vulnerable positions. When a mark contests or resists your character’s Social interactions, apply a –1 die penalty to his Resolve or Composure. Jargon (••): Your character confuses her mark using complex terminology. You may apply one relevant Specialty to any Social roll you make, even if the Specialty isn’t tied to the Skill in use. Devil’s Advocacy (•••): Your character often poses arguments she doesn’t agree with in order to challenge a mark’s position and keep him from advancing discussion. You can reroll one failed Subterfuge roll per scene.Salting (••••): Your character can position herself so a mark pursues a non-issue or something unimportant to her. When your character opens a Door using conversation (Persuasion, Subterfuge, Empathy, etc.) you may spend a Willpower point to immediately open another Door. Patron’s Privilege (•••••): Your character can take advantage of her mark’s greed and zeal. When the mark does particularly well, it’s because your character was there to set him up and to subsequently tear him down. If a target regains Willpower from his Vice while your character is present, you may immediately roll Manipulation + Subterfuge to open a Door, regardless of the interval or impression level. Fleet of Foot (• to •••)Prerequisite: Athletics ••Effect: Your character is remarkably quick and runs far faster than her frame suggests. She gains +1 Speed per dot; anyone pursuing her suffers a –1 die penalty per dot to any foot chase rolls.Hobbyist Clique (••)Prerequisite: Membership in a clique. All members must possess this Merit and the chosen Skill at ••+Effect: Your character is part of a group of hobbyists that specializes in one area, as represented by a Skill. It may be a book club, a coven, a political party, or any other interest. Many Kindred choose to cultivate this group as a Herd as well (see p. 112). When the group’s support is available, you benefit from the 9-again quality on rolls involving the group’s chosen Skill. As well, the clique offers a +2 die bonus on any extended actions involving that Skill. Drawback: This Merit requires upkeep. You must attend at least monthly, informal meetings to maintain the benefits of Hobbyist Clique.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 121Indomitable (••)Prerequisite: Resolve •••Your character possesses an unyielding will. The powers of the supernatural have little bearing on her behavior. She can stand up to Kindred Dominate, a witch’s charms, or a ghost’s gifts of fright. Any time a supernatural creature uses a power to influence your character’s thoughts or emotions, add a +2 die bonus to the dice pool to contest it. If the roll is resisted, instead subtract a –2 die penalty from the monster’s dice pool. Note that this only affects mental influence and manipulation from a supernatural origin. A vampire with a remarkable Manipulation + Persuasion score is just as likely to convince your character to do something using mundane tricks. Inspiring (•••)Prerequisite: Presence •••Effect: Your character’s passion inspires those around her to greatness. With a few words, she can redouble a group’s confidence or move them to action. Make a Presence + Expression roll. A small clique of listeners levies a –1 die penalty, a small crowd a –2, and a large crowd a –3. Listeners gain the Inspired Condition. The character may not use this Merit on herself. Interdisciplinary Specialty (•)Prerequisite: Skill at ••• or higher with a SpecialtyEffect: Choose a Specialty that your character possesses when you purchase this Merit. You can apply the +1 die bonus from that Specialty on any Skill with at least one dot, provided it’s justifiable within the scope of the fiction. For example, a doctor with a Medicine Specialty in Anatomy may be able to use it when targeting a specific body part with Weaponry, but could not with a general strike. Iron Will (••)Prerequisite: Resolve ••••Effect: Your character’s resolve is unwavering. When spending Willpower to contest or resist in a Social interaction, you may substitute your character’s Resolve for the usual Willpower bonus. If the roll is contested, roll with 8-again.Language (•)Effect: Your character is skilled with an additional language beyond her native tongue. Choose a language each time you buy this Merit. Your character can speak, read, and write in that language. Library (• to •••)Effect: Your character has access to a plethora of information about a given topic. When purchasing this Merit, choose a Mental Skill. The Library covers that purview. On any extended roll involving the Skill in question, add the dots in this Merit. This Merit can be purchased multiple times to reflect different Skills. Its benefits can be shared by various characters with permission. Mentor (• to •••••)Effect: This Merit gives your character a teacher who provides advice and guidance. He acts on your character’s behalf, often in the background and sometimes without your character’s knowledge. This may be a sire, a covenant leader, or other figure. While Mentors can be highly competent, they almost always want something in return for their services. The dot rating determines the Mentor’s capabilities, and to what extent he’ll aid your character. When establishing a Mentor, determine what the Mentor wants from your character. The dot rating chosen should reflect the importance of the objective to him. A one-dot Mentor might be incapable of dealing with modern society and wants to live vicariously through your character. This might mean coming to him and telling stories of your character’s exploits. A five-dot Mentor would want something beyond price, such as an oath to procure an ancient, cursed artifact that may or may not exist in order to prevent his prophesized death. Choose three Skills the Mentor possesses. You can substitute Resources for one of these Skills. Once per session, the character may ask her Mentor for a favor. The favor must involve one of those Skills or be within the scope of his Resources. The Mentor commits to the favor (often asking for a commensurate favor in return); and if a roll is required on the Mentor’s part to secure the favor, he is automatically considered to have successes equal to his dot rating. Alternately, the player may ask the Storyteller to have the Mentor act on her character’s behalf, without her character knowing or initiating the request.Mystery Cult Initiation (• to •••••)Cults are far more common than the people of the World of Darkness would like to admit. Mystery cult is the catch-all term for a phenomenon ranging from secret societies couched in fraternity houses and scholarly cabals studying the magic of classical symbolism to mystical suicide cults to the GodMachine. Mystery Cult Initiation reflects membership in one of these esoteric groups. The dot rating dictates standing. One dot is an initiate, two a respected member, three a priest or organizer, four a decision-making leader, five a high priest or founder. If you wish your character to begin play in a cult, work with your Storyteller to develop the details. Designing a Mystery Cult requires three things, at bare minimum. First is a Purpose. This is the defining reason the cult exists. Usually, it’s tied in with the cult’s history and recent background. Second is a Relic. This is an item that grounds its members’ faith. For example, a piece of the God-Machine, an ancient text bound in human flesh, or the mummified flesh of a saint. The last is a Doctrine. Every cult is defined by its rules and traditions.
122 Blood and SmokeIn addition to standing, a Mystery Cult Initiation Merit offers benefits at each level of influence. Develop these as well. The following are guidelines; use them to craft your own cults:• A Skill Specialty or one-dot Merit pertaining to the lessons taught to initiates. •• A one-dot Merit. ••• A Skill dot or a two-dot Merit (often a supernatural Merit). •••• A three-dot Merit, often supernatural in origin. ••••• A three-dot Merit or a major advantage not reflected in game traits.Parkour (Style, • to •••••)Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Athletics ••Your character is a trained and proficient free-runner. Free-running is the art of moving fluidly through urban environments with complex leaps, bounds, running tricks, and vaulting. This is the type of sport popularized in modern action films, where characters are unhindered by fences, walls, construction equipment, cars, or anything else the city puts in their ways. Flow (•): Your character reacts instinctively to any obstacles with leaps, jumps, and scaling techniques. When in a foot chase, subtract your Parkour from the successes needed to pursue or evade. Ignore environmental penalties to Athletics rolls equal to your Parkour rating.Cat Leap (••): Your character falls with outstanding grace. Normally, characters take one level of bashing damage for every ten feet fallen. Every success on a Dexterity + Athletics roll reduces the effective height by ten feet. However, if the character would take lethal damage from the fall, the Dexterity + Athletics roll will not reduce the damage. Parkour mitigates this limitation. Additionally, add your Parkour rating to the threshold of damage that can be removed through this roll. Parkour will not mitigate damage from a terminal velocity fall. Wall Run (•••): When climbing, your character can run upward for some distance before having to traditionally climb. Without rolling, your character scales 10 feet + five feet per dot of Athletics as an instant action, rather than the normal 10 feet. Expert Traceur (••••): Parkour has become second nature for your character. By spending a Willpower point, you may designate one Athletics roll to run, jump, or climb as a rote action (reroll all failed dice once). On any turn you use this ability, you may not apply your character’s Defense to oncoming attacks. Freeflow (•••••): Your character’s Parkour is now muscle memory. She can move without thinking in a zen-like state. The character must run for at least a full minute in order to establish Freeflow. Once established, your character is capable of taking Athletics actions reflexively once per turn. By spending a point of Willpower on an Athletics roll in a foot chase, gain three successes instead of three dice.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 123Resources (• to •••••)Effect: This Merit reflects your character’s disposable income. She might live in an upscale condo, but if her income is tied up in the mortgage and child support payments, she might have little money to throw around. Characters are assumed to have basic necessities without Resources. The dot rating determines the relative amount of disposable funding the character has available, depending on your particular chronicle’s setting. The same amount of money means completely different things in a game set in Silicon Valley compared to one set in the Detroit slums. One dot is a little spending money here and there. Two is a comfortable, middle class wage. Three is a nicer, upper middle class life. Four is moderately wealthy. Five is filthy rich. Every item has an Availability rating. Once per chapter, your character can procure an item at her Resources level or lower without issue. An item one Availability level above her Resources reduces her effective Resources by one dot for a full month, since she has to rapidly liquidate funds. She can procure items two Availability levels below her Resources without limit (within reason). For example, a character with Resources 4 can procure as many Availability 2 disposable cellphones as she needs.Retainer (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has an assistant, sycophant, servant, or follower on whom she can rely. Establish who this companion is and how he was acquired. It may be as simple as a paycheck. He might owe your character his life. However it happened, your character has a hold on him. A Retainer is more reliable than a Mentor and more loyal than an Ally. On the other hand, a Retainer is a lone person, less capable and influential than the broader Merits. The Merit’s dot rating determines the relative competency of the Retainer. A one-dot Retainer is barely able to do anything of use, such as a pet that knows one useful trick or a homeless old man who does minor errands for food. A three-dot Retainer is a professional in his field, someone capable in his line of work. A five-dot Retainer is one of the best in his class. If he needs to make a roll within his field, double the Retainer dot rating and use it as a dice pool. For anything else use the dot rating as a dice pool. This Merit can be purchased multiple times to represent multiple Retainers. Safe Place (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has somewhere she can go where she can feel secure. While she may have enemies that could attack her there, she’s prepared and has the upper hand. The dot rating reflects the security of the place. The actual location, the luxury, and the size are represented by equipment. A one-dot Safe Place might be equipped with basic security systems or a booby trap at the windows and door. A five-dot could have a security crew, infrared scanners at every entrance, or trained dogs. Each place could be an apartment, a mansion or a hidey-hole.Unlike most Merits, multiple characters can contribute dots to a single Safe Place, combining their points into something greater. A Safe Place gives an Initiative bonus equal to the Merit dots. This only applies to a character with dots invested in the Safe Place. Any efforts to breach the Safe Place suffer a penalty equal to the Merit dots invested. If the character desires, the Safe Place can include traps that cause intruders lethal damage equal to a maximum of the Merit rating (player’s choice as to how much damage a given trap inflicts). This requires that the character has at least a dot in Crafts. The traps may be avoided with a Dexterity + Larceny roll, penalized by the Safe Place dots.Sleight of Hand (••)Prerequisite: Larceny •••Effect: Your character can pick locks and pockets without even thinking about it. She can take one Larceny-based instant action reflexively in a given turn. Her Larceny actions go unnoticed unless someone is trying specifically to catch her.Staff (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has a crew of workers or assistants at her disposal. They may be housekeepers, designers, research assistants, animators, ghouls, cheap thugs, or whatever else makes sense. For every dot in this Merit, choose one type of assistant, and one Skill. At any reasonable time, her staff can take actions using that Skill. These actions automatically garner a single success. While not useful in contested actions, this guarantees success on minor, mundane activities. Note that you may have employees without requiring the Staff Merit. Staff simply adds a mechanical advantage for those groups.Status (• to •••••)Effect: Your character has standing, membership, authority, control over, or respect from a group or organization. This may reflect official standing or informal respect. No matter the source, your character enjoys certain privileges within that structure.Each instance of this Merit reflects standing in a different group or organization. Your character may have Status (The Luck Gang) 3, Status (Drag Racing Circuit) 2, and Status (Police) 1. Each affords its own unique benefits. As you increase dot ratings, your character rises in prominence in the relevant group. Status only allows advantages within the confines of the group reflected in the Merit. Status (Organized Crime) won’t help if your character wants an official concealed carry firearms permit, for example. Status provides a number of advantages.
124 Blood and SmokeFirst, your character can apply her Status to any Social roll with those over which she has authority or sway. Second, she has access to group facilities, resources, and funding. Dependent on the group, this could be limited by red tape and requisitioning processes. It’s also dependent on the resources the particular group has available. Third, she has pull. If your character knows another character’s Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Contacts, or Allies, she can block their usage. Once per chapter, she can stop a single Merit from being used if it’s of a lower dot rating than her Status and if it makes sense for her organization to obstruct that type of person’s behavior. In our Organized Crime example, if your character knows that the chief of police has Contacts (Criminal Informant), you may opt to block usage by threatening the informant into silence.Drawback: Status requires upkeep and often regular duties. If these duties are not upheld, Status may be lost. The dots will not be accessible until the character re-establishes her standing. In our Organized Crime example, your character may be expected to pay protection money, offer tribute to a higher authority, or undertake felonious activities.Striking Looks (• or ••)Effect: Your character is stunning, alarming, commanding, repulsing, threatening, charming, or otherwise worthy of attention. Determine how your character looks and how people react to that. For one dot, your character gets a +1 die bonus on any Social rolls that would be influenced by his looks. For two dots, the benefit increases to +2. Depending on the particulars, this might influence Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion, Subterfuge, or other rolls. Drawback: Attention is a double-edged sword. Any rolls to spot, notice, or remember your character gain the same die bonus. Sometimes, your character will draw unwanted attention in social situations. This could cause further complications. Sympathetic (••)Effect: Your character is very good at letting others get close. This gives him an edge in getting what he wants. At the beginning of a social maneuvering attempt, you may choose to accept a Condition such as Leveraged or Swooning in order to immediately eliminate two of the subject’s Doors.Taste (•)Prerequisite: Crafts •• and a Specialty in Crafts or ExpressionEffect: Your character has refined tastes and can identify minor details in fashion, food, architecture, and other forms of artistry and craftsmanship. Not only does this give her an eye for detail, it makes her a center of attention in critical circles. She can appraise items within her area of expertise. With a Wits + Skill roll, depending on the creation in question (Expression for poetry, Crafts for architecture, for example), your character can pick out obscure details about the item that other, less discerning minds would not. For each success, ask one of the following questions, or take a +1 die bonus to any Social rolls pertaining to groups interested in the art assessed for the remainder of the scene. • What is the hidden meaning in this? • What was the creator feeling during its creation? • What’s its weakest point? • What other witness is most moved by this piece? • How should one best appreciate this piece?Trained Observer (• or •••)Prerequisite: Wits ••• or Composure •••Effect: Your character has spent years in the field, catching tiny details and digging for secrets. She might not have a better chance of finding things, but she has a better chance of finding important things. Any time you make a Perception roll (usually Wits + Composure), you benefit from the 9-again quality. With the three-dot version, you get 8-again. True Friend (•••)Effect: Your character has a true friend. While that friend may have specific functions covered by other Merits (Allies, Contacts, Retainer, Mentor, et cetera), True Friend represents a deeper, truly trusting relationship that cannot be breached. Unless your character does something egregious to cause it, her True Friend will not betray her. The Storyteller cannot kill a True Friend as part of a plot without your express permission. Any rolls to influence a True Friend against your character suffer a –5 die penalty. In addition, once per story your character can regain one spent Willpower by having a meaningful interaction with her True Friend. Unseen Sense (••)Prerequisite: Human character (not Kindred)Effect: Your character has a “sixth sense” for a type of supernatural creature, chosen when you buy the Merit. For example, you may choose Unseen Sense: Vampires, or Unseen Sense: Fairies. The sense manifests differently for everyone. A character’s hair stands on end, she becomes physically ill, or perhaps she has a cold chill. Regardless, she knows that something isn’t right when she is in the immediate proximity of the appropriate supernatural being. Once per chapter, the player can accept the Spooked Condition (p. 305)in exchange for which the character can pinpoint where the feeling is coming from. If the target is using a power that specifically cloaks its supernatural nature, however, this does not work (though the Condition remains until resolved as usual).
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 125DisciplinesWithout discipline, there’s no life at all.—Katharine HepburnThe Kindred wield strange powers — a vampire could sway men’s minds, vanish from plain sight, or manifest her victim’s worst nightmares. These powers come unbidden in the vampire’s blood, and call on not just his human mind but the Beast hidden just under the surface. The Beast walks unseen through the world of men and cows lesser animals. It slips the bonds of flesh and inspires awe and jealousy from other people.Using DisciplinesSome Disciplines are a fundamental part of the vampire’s nature, available to her whenever she wants thanks to the power burning in her blood. These abilities may require her to expend Vitae; a few exceptional ones may also require her to spend a Willpower point. Others require her to demonstrate her mastery of the Discipline. The dice pool to activate a Discipline is made up of three traits, rather than two — an Attribute, a Skill, and the Discipline itself. The vampire uses her full mastery with the Discipline, no matter which ability she’s using — a vampire with Animalism 5 uses her full five dice for all Animalism powers, even if she’s just using Animalism 1. The corollary of that is that a vampire cannot use a Discipline power that’s greater than her Discipline dots — a vampire with Dominate 3 can’t access The Lying Mind or Possession, as they require more than three dots of Dominate.Each Discipline calls on the Beast, whether using its talents overtly or expressing it through the blood inside. While the mechanical effect of a player failing her Discipline roll is that nothing happens, that’s not strictly true. Something happens. The Beast won’t just accept the idea that tapping its power produces no results. Maybe the lights flicker, or the vampire’s flesh writhes on her bones for just a second. Maybe her victim sees a second, screaming face trying to escape the vampire’s head for just a second. Whatever it is, it’s not enough to properly freak her victim out — that’s the domain of the Nosferatu, through their Nightmare Discipline. It’s just something that reminds the vampire that she’s not human, she’s tapping something within herself that she doesn’t fully understand and cannot truly control. The Storyteller and player should work together to come up with a couple of potential minor signs that the vampire’s tried to use a Discipline, even though nothing particularly supernatural has happened.Learning DisciplinesMany Kindred spontaneously manifest new Disciplines, as the Beast asserts itself in new and strange ways. The Blood makes strong connections between vampires, so most Kindred only display the Disciplines of their Clan. To learn another Discipline, the vampire must first track down another vampire who possesses the Discipline and drink at least one point of his Vitae — with all of the attendant consequences.Supernatural ConflictThe Kindred don’t just face off against one another. The World of Darkness is a strange and horrible place. Werewolves stalk the night, hunting unseen prey. Patchwork men question what it really is to be human, and some people who die don’t stay dead. Many of these creatures have mysterious abilities of their own, and when they come into contact with vampires it’s only a matter of time before someone goes too far and their powers come into conflict.This book focuses on vampires and the mortals who surround them. One of the Kindred is harder to browbeat than a human, and thus adds his Blood Potency to rolls to resist Dominate. A mortal doesn’t have the supernatural chops to resist a Nosferatu manifesting his worst nightmares, so only rolls his Composure against the effect.The supernatural forces of the world can resist a vampire’s talents in much the same way as the Kindred themselves. When a Discipline calls for a contested roll, use the victim’s nearest equivalent to Blood Potency — a werewolf’s Primal Urge, or a Promethean’s Azoth. In return, the power of the Blood protects a vampire from the strange powers of these creatures. Where another supernatural power calls on that equivalent trait, a vampire can add her Blood Potency to her Resistance Attribute for contested rolls.Note that Blood Potency and related Traits do not add to the Resistance Attribute used in a resisted roll, just contested rolls.Clash of WillsSometimes, two Disciplines clearly oppose one another. If the normal systems for the Disciplines fail to resolve this, such as when two vampires attempt to Dominate the same person, or Auspex is turned against a vampire hidden by Obfuscate, there is a Clash of Wills.All characters using conflicting powers enter a contested roll-off, each using a pool of his Blood Potency plus his dots in the Discipline. Devotions use Blood Potency plus the highest rated Discipline among the prerequisites, while blood sorcery uses Blood Potency plus the character’s dots in Crúac or Theban Sorcery. Ties reroll until one player has accrued more success than all others. The effect invoked by that player’s character wins out and resolves as usual, while all others fail. Victory of one power in a clash does not mean the immediate cancellation
126 Blood and Smokeof the others, save in cases where only one power can possibly endure (such as competing Domination).Characters may spend Willpower to bolster the contested roll, but only if they are physically present and aware that powers are clashing. Certain powers, such as those with exceptionally long durations, are more enduring in a clash. Night-long effects add one die to the clash roll, weeklong effects add two, month-long three; and effects that would last a year or longer add four.Clash of Wills can apply to other supernatural creatures, as well. The traits involved depend on the creature and will be elaborated upon in later books.Example: Two Mekhet, Piotr and Alan, have come into conflict. Alan is attempting to use The Spirit’s Touch (Auspex 3) to snoop around Piotr’s den. However, the den is disguised by Oubliette (Obfuscate 5), thus the two characters enter a Clash of Wills. Alan has four dots of Auspex and two dots of Blood Potency, so Alan’s player will roll six dice. Piotr has five dots of Obfuscate and three dots of Blood Potency, eight dice. Oubliette is a long-lasting power with a three-week duration, so Piotr’s player adds two dice, bringing the roll up to ten dice total. Neither character can spend Willpower on the roll because Alan isn’t certain anything supernatural is going on and Piotr isn’t present.Both players roll; Piotr’s player gets two successes, while Alan’s rolls an impressive four. Therefore, The Spirit’s Touch has won out and Alan becomes aware of the building’s true nature. To all other characters the location remains occluded.AnimalismA vampire’s Beast is not just a facet of her predatory nature, but a predator in and of itself — and it’s at the top of the food chain. A vampire can slip the leash of her Beast just a little to overpower weaker animals, forcing her will on them. Most Animalism powers affect predators and scavenging animals. In a city, the Kindred can call on feral cats and dogs, pigeons and crows, foxes, and more rats than anyone wants to think about. Rural vampires can summon bats, wolves, mountain lions, and even bears — any animal that feasts on the flesh of another.Feral Whispers •To those she would command, a vampire must first make herself understood. So it is with beasts as well as men. A vampire using Feral Whispers overpowers the animal’s instinctive reactions and forces it to understand. She can ask questions of a creature and it must respond as best it can, and with a further slight nudge, she can compel it to obey her. A canny vampire can use magpies and crows to spy on her victims from above, or command a gangster’s mastiffs to savage their owner.The vampire talks to the animal, either using human words or, much more frequently, by making animal sounds of her own. She can command groups of animals, such as a flock of birds or a swarm of rats, as long as she is close enough that the animals can all hear her, and she can see all of them.Cost: NoneDice Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken + AnimalismAction: InstantDuration: Scene, command can persist up to a night.Roll ResultsDramatic Failure: The animal misunderstands the vampire’s command, giving false information when the vampire asks, or obeying a twisted version of the vampire’s command.Failure: The animals fear the Beast, fleeing from a superior predator.Success: The vampire can communicate with an animal, asking it what it has perceived. Most animals can remember what has happened over the last night. Animals relate what they have encountered through the lens of their own perceptions — dogs answer in terms of smell and hearing, while birds relate what they could see. The vampire can also give the victim a simple command, equivalent to what the animal could do on its own, such as “attack him,” “follow her then return here,” “chew through these cables.” The command doesn’t normally persist for more than a night, but the vampire can add simple contingencies such as forcing the beast to go to ground if noticed, or to return once the command is complete.Exceptional Success: The animal is exceptionally obedient to the vampire, improvising to follow the spirit of the Kindred’s command.Raise the Familiar ••True beasts cannot be Embraced. They have never had the necessary Humanity. With this power, though, the vampire can complete the process halfway. By feeding a drained animal some of her Vitae, a vampire can infuse it with a fragment of the Kindred’s twilight life. It looks as it did when it died, though if appropriate, it might gain retractable fangs like a vampire. But the fangs are a lie — its true tragedy is that it cannot transubstantiate blood into Vitae. If it was wounded in death, it retains signs of the injuries, but its body functions fully. A coyote crushed by an SUV has a tire track running across it but no crushed bones, and a crow with a busted wing has bone jutting out of the wound but can still fly.It doesn’t act like a normal animal — it doesn’t hunt for food, nor is it spooked by loud noises. It sleeps throughout the day, but becomes active at night. A human observing such an animal might be able to tell something’s wrong, but only the most grievous wounds usually make them take the time to look.Cost: 1 VitaeRequirement: Feed 1 Vitae to the corpse (included in cost)Dice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: (Blood Potency * animal’s Stamina) nightsThe vampire feeds one point of Vitae to the animal’s corpse. The animal returns to a semblance of life for a number of nights equal to (Blood Potency * animal’s Stamina). Once she has raised a beast, a vampire can feed it more Vitae; each point
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 127ensures the animal’s continued existence as though the vampire had just raised it.The raised creature gains a semblance of intelligence and a certain low cunning, enough to follow complex orders that most animals could not understand, and to interpret the spirit of commands rather than the letter. Treat the familiar as having one dot of Intelligence.Infused with Vitae, the familiar takes bashing damage from attacks like a vampire, and does not fall unconscious or bleed out. The animal does not decompose.The Vitae burning within the animal’s dead veins forges a sympathetic link between it and the vampire. The vampire can use Feral Whispers on her familiar at any time, over any distance, communicating silently or issuing commands at any range. Though she must still roll to see if her familiar interpreted her command, the animal does not resist.Summon the Hunt •••The vampire infuses some of her Vitae with the essence of her prey, making it irresistible to other predators and scavenging beasts. Wherever she spills her blood — on the ground, over an object, or even splashing it on another person— the animals she calls will try to consume it. Her blood only loses potency once the summoned animals destroy whatever she poured it over or once the sun rises, at which point the Vitae burns away as though it were never present. She can focus her Beast’s call on one kind of creature, for example summoning just birds or rats. Prey animals in the affected area rightly shy away, afraid of the power of a vampire’s Beast.Cost: 2 VitaeRequirement: Spill 1 Vitae upon the target (included in cost).Dice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + AnimalismAction: InstantDuration: One night, or until the item marked with blood is destroyed.Roll ResultsDramatic Failure: The animals follow the Beast’s call, but lash out against the vampire in fear.Failure: Animals within the Discipline’s range feel their normal fear of the Kindred and stay well away.Success: The vampire chooses when spilling the Vitae whether to summon all predators and scavengers, or whether to restrict herself to one kind of animal. All animals that match her request within (successes) city blocks in the city, or (successes * 100) yards (successes * 90 meters) in the country respond to her call. Once they taste the spilled Vitae, the vampire can imprint a command as though she had used Feral Whispers on the animal. All animals receive the same command, but it persists even while the vampire slumbers; the animals follow her command for one night per success.Exceptional Success: Animals that taste the vampire’s blood follow her command with single-minded zeal. They do not stop to eat or sleep, deriving sustenance from the taste of Vitae alone.Feral Infection ••••The vampire floods the area with her predatory aura, infecting everything around her with the ravings of her Beast. The scent of her blood inspires rage in animals, and can drive men mad, especially those who have recently touched her blood. Other Kindred witnessing the effects of Feral Infection recognize the Beast unchained, likening the victims’ actions to their own moments of frenzy. The vampire using this Discipline can exert a measure of control over her victims’ madness, focusing her own Beast against some victim she wants to crush, or a goal she wants to conquer.Cost: 2 VitaeRequirement: Spill 1 Vitae upon the ground (included in cost).Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + AnimalismAction: InstantDuration: SceneRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The vampire loses hold of her Beast, and it smashes past her. She is provoked to frenzy, though with a –2 die modifier on the roll to resist.Failure: Affected animals display odd behavior — chasing their tails, or attacking their own limbs — but nothing drives them into a rage.Success: Any animal that can smell the vampire’s blood enters a state of feral rage. It lashes out, attacking the nearest victim without a thought for its own safety. Once the victim is unconscious or dead, the animal feeds on his flesh. If the vampire wishes, she can direct the mob of frenzied creatures towards a single target or goal. She can’t give complex instructions or a direct command, but can point out targets to attack or the direction to move in.Humans and supernatural creatures must make a reflexive (Resolve + Composure – vampire’s successes) roll to resist the vampire’s predatory Aura. If the victim has touched or imbibed the vampire’s blood within the last night, they suffer a –3 die penalty. A failed roll puts the victim under the vampire’s command. Vampires and werewolves frenzy, their victims dictated by the Kindred who provoked them. Humans and other supernatural creatures fall into an atavistic state where they must attack the target, or move towards it if they can’t reach it. If the vampire does not set a command, her victims turn upon one another. A supernatural creature can spend a point of Willpower to ignore the vampire’s commands, though she remains frenzied. Exceptional Success: Unleashing her Beast sates it temporarily. The vampire gains the Sated Condition (p. 305).Lord of the Land •••••The vampire marks her territory with Vitae, in much the same way that animals use urine or feces. She must encircle her territory in a ring of Vitae, claiming it as her own — assuming she
128 Blood and Smokehas driven off any prior residents. When encircling the territory, she must walk the whole border. Some Kindred open wounds on their hands and arms and walk at a stately pace, dripping a slow stream of thick blood behind them. Others run wild, smearing blood and bodily fluids on surfaces like a feral beast.Once she has established her territory, the vampire is privy to everything that happens within it. She can command animals, summon or banish people, and provoke other vampires to leave her lair. Most vampires establish their territory in small places, like a brownstone or small public garden. A powerful vampire might claim a whole public park or castle, but he must make sure that nothing interrupts his claim — more than one vampire has discovered that his territory is already claimed by an angry pack of werewolves halfway through claiming it.Cost: 3-9 Vitae and 1 WillpowerRequirement: The vampire must walk a circuit around his new territory while marking it with Vitae. Three Vitae is enough to secure a small house or garden, six can secure a city block, while nine is enough to claim a castle. She must make sure that the area contains no other vampires; many Kindred prefer to evict all supernatural denizens. While the Discipline will still function if her territory contains werewolves or other monsters, they will suffer the effects — and will deduce that the vampire is to blame.Dice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: One week per dot of Blood Potency, longer if the vampire remains in his territory.The vampire marks her territory. It remains empowered for at least one week per dot of Blood Potency, though the effects of this Discipline only end when the vampire leaves her territory after the duration. Rumors speak of ancient vampires lying in torpor whose territories remain active to this day.A vampire’s territory scares off most creatures. Animals and wild beasts won’t enter, and will fight to escape if forced inside, unless otherwise affected by the vampire’s powers. Humans and supernatural creatures, including other vampires, must succeed at a reflexive Composure + Blood Potency roll to enter — or to stay in the area once it is created. Unless they roll an exceptional success, the feeling of overwhelming dread inflicts a –3 die penalty on all actions. For Kindred, simply being in another vampire’s territory is provocation to frenzy, and rolls to resist suffer a –2 die penalty. If a vampire explicitly invites someone into his territory — or uses Feral Whispers or Summon the Hunt in the case of animals — they do not suffer these penalties. Ghoul animals are also exempt.When the vampire is within her territory, she can feel when a person or animal crosses into her territory; if an invader is a vampire, she knows his general Blood Potency. She always has a rough idea of where everyone is within her domain, and only supernatural means such as Disciplines can cut through her awareness — triggering a Clash of Wills. As the undisputed master of her territory, a frenzying creature cannot attack the vampire, nor may they spend Willpower to resist her commands delivered through Feral Infection. Any commands given by Feral Whispers last indefinitely, or until the ContactIt’s easier for a vampire to use Auspex on another person if he’s spent some time in intimate contact with her. The contact doesn’t need to be sexual, any period of platonic physical contact is enough. Digging a bullet out of someone’s side — or carefully severing her arm — reveals her secrets to Auspex. Intimate contact gives a +3 bonus to the vampire’s roll.animal leaves the vampire’s territory. Finally, the vampire can snatch the senses of any animal she has raised with Raise the Familiar within her territory, and use that animal to deliver commands using Feral Whispers to other creatures.AuspexAuspex turns the Beast’s predatory instincts loose on secrets, finding points of weakness and hidden gems that the vampire can exploit to his advantage. Auspex is an internal Discipline, revealing information to the Kindred through visions that range from the direct to the hallucinatory. Other vampires have no way to know when someone is using Auspex to discover their secrets, and for that reason many Mekhet feel the stares and whispered barbs of other vampires who worry what secrets the clan of Shadows will uncover next.Beast’s Hackles •The Beast focuses on danger and weakness. A vampire who borrows her Beast’s senses can use that focus to know if someone is about to attack her, or to pinpoint the weakest person in the room. The Beast is sensitive to things that other people cannot normally perceive; using this Discipline can pierce Obfuscate (see “Clash of Wills,” p.125).Cost: Varies, as the Discipline is slightly tiring; the first use in a scene is free, but subsequent uses in the same scene cost 1 Vitae each.Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + AuspexAction: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The player asks a question as though he had rolled a success; the Storyteller should either give false information, or present a warped version of the truth.Failure: The vampire’s senses cloud; his Beast doesn’t see any immediate point of weakness.Success: The player can ask one question of the Storyteller. The Storyteller’s answer should include the imagery conjured by the Beast to convey the answer. This level of Auspex can only answer immediate questions about danger or weakness;
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 129the sample questions below cover much of the information the Beast can provide.Exceptional Success: The player can ask two questions.Sample Questions• Who here is the most likely to give me what I want? Blood throbbing through the victim’s jugular vein. The sound of jingling coins from the victim’s pocket.• Who/what here is most likely to lapse into violence? The victim’s hands stained with blood. The smell of gunpowder wafting from the victim.• Who here is most afraid? The smell of urine from the victim’s pants. A whimpering sound from the victim.• Who/what here is most likely to hurt me? Blood drying on a car crusher. Waves of hot rage boiling off the victim.• Who here is closest to frenzy? The victim’s face twists into a frenzied rictus. The taste of hot bile when facing the victim.• Is a vampire here using Auspex 5? A pall of grey smoke hanging in the air. A feeling like someone walked over the vampire’s grave.Uncanny Perception ••The vampire focuses on a single victim, peeling back the layers of lies and misdirection to reveal the truth underneath. The Beast sniffs out the victim’s dark secrets, things that she doesn’t want anyone else to know. What the vampire does with that information is up to him.Cost: Varies; the first use in a scene is free, but subsequent uses against the same target that scene cost 1 Vitae each.Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + AuspexAction: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The player asks a question as though he had rolled a success; the Storyteller should give false or misleading information.Failure: The Beast unveils no secrets. Does the victim really have nothing to hide?Success: The player can ask the Storyteller one question per success. The Storyteller’s answer should include the imagery conjured by the Beast to convey the answer. This level of Auspex focuses on questions concerning the secrets and weaknesses of a single character.Exceptional Success: The images give the vampire further insight into the questions asked.Sample Questions• What is this person’s mood? A flash of emotion on the victim’s face. A smell that the vampire associates with the emotion — the smell of fresh blood signifying rage, the sound of grinding stone signifying isolation.• What is this person afraid of right now? Shock as lights suddenly shine on the victim. The sound of dogs barking.• What is this person’s Vice/Requiem? The sound of conspiratorial whispers. The smell of drugs wafting off a junkie.• What is one of this person’s psychological vulnerabilities? A sudden feeling of incredible depression. Shifting walls and colors as if in a hallucination.• Is this person a diablerist? The smell of brimstone and clotted blood. Thick black blood dripping off the victim’s chin.• Is this person being controlled by someone else? Marionette strings leading from the victim’s limbs up to the ceiling. A whispered voice that tells the victim what to do as she acts.• Is this person a supernatural creature — and if I have seen them before, what is she? The taste of torn flesh. The glowing halo of a mage’s nimbus.• Who here does this person want to hurt most? A bloody dagger drops from the victim’s hand, pointing to the answer. The taste of bile when looking at the target of the victim’s ire.The Spirit’s Touch •••A vampire can turn his Beast’s senses on an object or place, uncovering secrets and destroying lies just as surely as if he had focused on a person. A vampire can only use this Discipline on a particular object once per scene.Cost: NoneDice Pool: Wits + Occult + AuspexAction: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The player asks a question as though he had rolled a success; the Storyteller should give false or misleading information.Failure: The object yields no secrets to the Kindred’s senses — this time.Success: The player can ask the Storyteller one question per success about the place or object. The Beast conjures images to answer rather than just words. In addition to the sample questions below, the character can ask questions suggested for Auspex 1 and 2 if they would be relevant.Exceptional Success: The vampire can fully appreciate the object or place, and gains a +1 die bonus when using/interacting with it for the rest of the scene.Sample Questions• Who last touched/owned this? A vision of the person holding the object. The sound of the victim’s voice, identifying herself.• What is the strongest emotion associated with this object? A hot flash of rage. A sudden flash of serene clarity.• What was the object being used for at the point of strongest emotion? A vision of the vampire using the object. Sounds and ghostly outlines of people walking through the room.
130 Blood and SmokeLay Open the Mind ••••The Mekhet focuses on bringing her thoughts in line with her victim. He begins to think like her, and soon hears her thoughts in his mind. By concentrating and gently changing his own thoughts, he can project ideas or memories into the victim’s mind. With a little practice, the vampire can communicate without words, or project full memories to overwhelm the victim’s senses. He can even stimulate memories by thinking of a time, place, or emotion that causes the victim to remember — even if the victim had blocked it out or had it removed by magic.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Intelligence + Socialize + Auspex vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: InstantDuration: SceneRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The vampire aligns to the victim’s thoughts, but he cannot keep his thoughts separate from hers. He suffers the Confused Condition (p. 302).Failure: The victim’s thoughts remain outside of the vampire’s grasp.Success: The vampire’s thoughts align with the victim’s mind, and remain connected for the rest of the scene. He hears her thoughts as though she were speaking them aloud. People don’t think in complete sentences, but the vampire can discern the victim’s precise mood and intention, and some snippets of her current motivation and considerations. He can also project thoughts, either speaking directly into the victim’s thoughts, or depositing a mental image or memory.By focusing, the vampire can drag up a full memory from the victim, including things that the victim has forgotten or that were suppressed by magic (though doing so takes a Clash of Wills). He experiences all of the memory in an instant, with all five senses. If he chooses to transmit that memory to the victim, he can inflict a Condition like Guilty, Inspired, or Shaken as appropriate (p. 302 and p. 305). Uncovering further memories costs 1 Vitae per memory.Exceptional Success: The vampire can retrieve as many deep memories as he has dots in Auspex before paying Vitae to uncover more.Twilight Projection •••••The vampire unshackles his mind, leaving his body and projecting his senses throughout the world. His astral form exists in a twilight state, with no real physical or spiritual substance to it, but still in the world and noticeable only by other vampires with Auspex. The vampire can move at incredible speeds, traveling to any point within the moon’s orbit — an area that some Kindred call the “lunar sphere.” While his senses and consciousness travel the world the vampire’s body appears to be a normal corpse, albeit one that does not decay.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + AuspexAction: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The character’s senses part from his body, but something sends his consciousness far away.Failure: The vampire cannot slip the bounds of his dead flesh.Success: The vampire’s senses part from his body, and can travel the world. Multiply the vampire’s Speed by his (Auspex + Blood Potency). The vampire is not bound by gravity, and can travel through physical obstacles and even into the ground. He cannot interact with the physical world in any way when separate from his body. He can see and hear as well as he can normally, but cannot use Disciplines. The vampire’s body lies in a torpor-like state, and he is unaware of anything that happens to it — though if someone kills his body or drives him to torpor, his mind jumps back to his body. Apart from that, the vampire must move his astral form back to his body to awaken. Every sunrise that the vampire remains separate from his body he loses a dot of Blood Potency — and suffers Final Death if his Blood Potency reaches 0. He regains any lost dots upon returning to his body. He must still spend a point of Vitae at the beginning of each night. Some vampires speak of strange magic that can prevent a vampire from returning to his body, or of his body walking around unbidden, with yellow eyes the only sign that something might be wrong. Exceptional Success: The vampire’s senses slip away easily, and he is left with a memory of where his body is. He can reflexively spend a point of Vitae to instantly return to his body — or to the edge of any mystic boundary that prevents him from returning.CelerityUnleashing her Beast, a vampire can cross vast distances in the blink of an eye, catch a thrown punch before her attacker has even moved a muscle, or snatch a gun barrel away from a man’s temple before he can pull the trigger. Celerity makes a vampire so fast that it’s as if she never has to move at all.Cost: None or 1 Vitae per active effectDice Pool: NoneAction: None (for persistent effects) or Reflexive (for active effects)Duration: Permanent (for persistent effects) or one turn (for active effects)Like other physical Disciplines, Celerity has two kinds of effects: persistent and active. Persistent effects are always on, and have no cost. Active effects are reflexive and cost one Vitae per effect.Persistent: Add the vampire’s dots in Celerity to her Defense, or to her Dodge roll when defending actively. If a Firearms attack denies her normal Defense, the attacker still takes a penalty on his attack equal to the vampire’s dots in Celerity. A character must still be aware of incoming attacks to defend against them.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 131If she is restrained, slumbering, or otherwise unable to respond, Celerity offers no advantage.Active: By spending Vitae Celerity allows for bursts of speed faster than the eye can perceive. For each point of Vitae spent choose one effect from the following list. A vampire may spend additional Vitae to invoke multiple effects simultaneously, but no effect of Celerity may be used more than once per turn.• Immediately move to the head of the Initiative queue. This boost in Initiative lasts only one turn, after which all combatants return to acting in their rolled order. If multiple vampires attempt to jump ahead simultaneously they enter a Clash of Wills (p. 125), the winner acts first.• Interrupt the action of another character with a brief action of her own. This could be an attack, making it possible to disable an opponent in mid-action. It may be movement, avoiding harm by shifting out of reach. Or it could be any other instant action, like activating a Discipline or dodging. However, the vampire is still limited to one instant action. She cannot use Celerity to make two attacks, or an attack followed by another instant action. Likewise she cannot move further in a single turn than her Speed would allow. The decision to interrupt is made after another character’s action is declared, but before it actually occurs (before dice are rolled). Once interrupted, the other character must continue his declared action, if it’s still possible. If the action is no longer possible, he takes no action. Alternatively, that character’s player may declare his action a dramatic failure and take a Beat. Celerity cannot interrupt reflexive actions or actions of which the character was unaware. Finally, using Celerity in this way is exhausting; a vampire may only interrupt as many actions in a scene as she has dots in Celerity.• Multiply her speed by her dots in Celerity plus one. Moving in this way is sudden, jarring, the vampire appears to shift from point to point without crossing the space in-between. She may use this to briefly avoid detection or launch surprise attacks.DominateThe Beast demands obedience from lesser creatures. It slips into the Kindred’s voice, modulating his tone and his words to express absolute authority. It progresses from the simple barked commands of a drill sergeant to creating false memories of whatever the vampire desires — or letting her steal her victim’s body to walk in the sunlight once again.Mesmerize •All a vampire has to do is meet her victim’s eye to catch him in her thrall. Her control isn’t obvious; she just asks him to do something and her victim acquiesces. He could unlock a door, pass her a gun — or forget ever meeting her. Some cruel vampires mesmerize passers-by just to take the rap for their crimes.Cost: NoneDice Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: InstantEye ContactDominate requires a vampire make eye contact with her victims in order to issue commands. That contact is one-way — the victim needs to see the vampire’s eyes, but not vice versa. This contact is possible through simple barriers like sunglasses (even mirrored) or tinted windows, but does not work when looking at a video feed rather than the vampire herself.Roll ResultsDramatic Failure: The victim sees through the vampire’s attempt to control his mind; emboldened, he gains the Steadfast Condition (p. 306).Failure: The vampire’s victim proves stronger-willed than she’d thought.Success: The vampire holds her victim’s gaze for just a second, but it’s enough to inflict the Mesmerized Condition (p. 305).Exceptional Success: The vampire’s control flows over the victim’s brain like water. They want to do whatever the vampire says. The vampire can issue a command in the same action as mesmerizing the victim.Once she has inflicted the Mesmerized Condition, the vampire can command the victim as an instant action. Her commands can’t be longer than three or four words, and she has to be direct — her control doesn’t extend to issuing vague commands. “Follow me,” “Shoot your husband,” and “Repeat after me…” are all suitable commands, while “Forget,” “Submit,” and “Do my bidding” have too much room for interpretation. She can even mess with the victim’s memory, making one statement about the current scene that victim will remember as truth. While she can still only use simple and unambiguous commands, she can pack a lot of changes into four words: “You killed that man” and “I was not here” combine to frame the victim for murder.Iron Edict ••Once she’s got a hotline into her victim’s mind, the vampire can take some time to play with his thoughts and memories. While it takes more of her power to relay complex commands, she goes from jerking her victim’s strings to controlling him like a puppeteer, making his ever movement dance to her tune.Cost: 1 Vitae; none if victim is in Vinculum with the vampireDice Pool: NoneRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victimAction: InstantThe vampire can issue a longer command to a Mesmerized victim. This edict can be up to three sentences long, and can
132 Blood and Smokeinclude a successive series of actions. The command takes two turns per sentence to convey. As with Mesmerize, the vampire’s control doesn’t extend to commands that rely on the victim’s interpretation. The victim takes the Dominated Condition (p. 302) and will follow the vampire’s commands as soon as she finishes speaking them. He continues to follow the order until he has completed his task, or the sun rises. Many Kindred use Iron Edict to issue a simple command, such as “Obey my direct instructions when I give them to you,” which effectively gives them control over the minion until the sun comes up — though it doesn’t extend the duration of the Mesmerized Condition.Entombed Command •••The vampire’s has enough control over her meat-puppet to implant a subconscious trigger, a specific set of conditions that will turn him into her slave when he encounters them. She can force her victim into a suggestible state when he points a gun at her, make him transfer all of his money into her account when he hears Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, or only allow him to remember his son when he smells lilacs.Cost: None; other Dominate powers may cost Vitae.Dice Pool: Intelligence + Subterfuge + Dominate – victim’s ResolveRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victimAction: InstantDuration: One week per success, or one month per success (see below).Roll ResultsDramatic Failure: The vampire’s attempt to set up a trigger backfires. The victim loses his Mesmerized Condition. For the next week, when he encounters one trigger that the vampire attempted to set he instead gains the Steadfast Condition (p. 306).Failure: The attempt to set triggers in the victim’s mind doesn’t take. Is he fighting back, or is there another reason?Success: The vampire can implant a number of subconscious triggers equal to the number of successes rolled to trigger specific effects of other Dominate powers. She must pay any Vitae cost for these powers as normal. These triggers remain in place for one week per success, or one month per success if the victim is in any stage of Vinculum towards the vampire. During that time, the effects of the trigger emerge each time the victim encounters the stimulus.Exceptional Success: The vampire’s commands slip into the victim’s subconscious with ease. Reduce the Vitae cost by one when implanting Iron Edict and The Lying Mind.Each trigger is a specific event or sensory stimulus that causes the linked effect to emerge. The vampire must pay any Vitae cost for other Dominate powers, but only need do so once to attach that power to any number of triggers. Using Iron Edict in conjunction with Entombed Command to force a man to show up at a nightclub when he argues with his wife, and making him fill a USB stick with sensitive information from his workplace all costs only one point of Vitae. Describing both the trigger and its specific effect on the victim takes about two turns per trigger.Other Dominate abilities work as follows when channeled through Entombed Command:• Mesmerize: The victim gains the Mesmerized Condition when he encounters the trigger. If the vampire isn’t present to capitalize on his state, the effects soon fade.• Iron Edict: When the victim encounters the trigger, he immediately gains a Dominated Condition relating to the imprinted command. As he is entirely under the vampire’s sway when Dominated, he does not encounter other triggers until he resolves the Condition.• The Lying Mind: The trigger serves as a switch for memory alteration. Encountering it once causes a memory to emerge (or to vanish), while encountering it again reverses the change.The Lying Mind ••••A mistress of Dominate can dance through her victim’s memories, sculpting them to her whims. He might not remember his family — or she might force him to remember the tragic death of a son who never existed. She can subtly alter his memories, replacing his wife’s face with her own, or moving his memory of a vacation from Paris to London. Beyond necessary generalities, this does not allow the vampire to read the original memories.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: NoneRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victim; the victim must consume or be anointed by 1 Vitae (included in cost).Action: InstantDuration: PermanentWhile he remains Mesmerized, the vampire can spin her victim’s memories like cotton candy, stretching far back into childhood. She must either feed him some of her Vitae or drip it onto his forehead. She can create memories of events from nothing, erase memories of an event or person, or change the people, events, and location of existing memories to serve her purpose. As part of this alteration, she inflicts a persistent Condition on the victim. If she deletes a broad swath of memories, the victim receives the Amnesia Condition (p. 301), otherwise he takes the False Memories Condition (p. 303).The vampire has to speak with her victim, describing the changes she wants to make to his memories. Crude alterations — deleting a swathe of his past, or replacing his wife’s face with the vampire’s in all his memories — take about a minute to describe, but more detailed changes can take quite a bit longer. When changing memories or creating new ones, the vampire can create the factual content of the memory, but the victim’s thoughts and feelings remain out of her control. She can create an environment that makes him predisposed to certain reactions, but she can’t force him to love a son she’s just invented. The vampire’s changes are permanent, unless she used Entombed Command to only reveal them on a trigger.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 133Possession •••••Controlling a victim’s memories and actions is one thing, but for some vampires the truest expression of control comes from suppressing the victim’s will entirely, taking complete control of his body. The vampire moves her mind into the victim, using his body instead of her own.Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 WillpowerDice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate – victim’s ResolveRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victim.Action: ReflexiveDuration: 1 night per successRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The victim’s mind will not be bound to the vampire’s control. He immediately resolves the Mesmerized Condition and regains a point of Willpower.Failure: The vampire cannot take total control of her victim just yet.Success: The vampire takes over her victim’s body for one night per success. While in this new body, she uses her victim’s Physical Attributes and Skills in place of her own, and gains any Physical or Combat Merits that the victim possessed. She can stay awake during the day by spending a point of Willpower at dawn and takes no damage from sunlight — if she does not spend Willpower, she returns to her body. Each night, she must spend a point of Vitae as normal. She cannot use Disciplines or Blood Sorcery when possessing someone else, nor can she access any supernatural powers her victim may possess, but she otherwise controls his body totally. If she attempts to kill herself the victim may roll Resolve + Blood Potency as a reflexive action, on a success he evicts the vampire from his consciousness. Possessing a victim removes the Mesmerized and Dominated Conditions, and the vampire is not subject to any triggers set on the victim by Entombed Command while she remains in control. Once she leaves the victim’s body, those triggers affect him as normal. While she commands the victim’s body, the vampire’s own form lies in a torpor-like state awaiting her return; if she remains in the victim’s body for so long that her body slips into torpor, she immediately snaps back into her body.Exceptional Success: The vampire slips into the victim’s body with ease, and leaves her jaunt in another body with renewed purpose. Upon leaving the victim’s body, she regains a point of Willpower.MajestyMajesty draws on the Beast’s animal magnetism to amplify a vampire’s force of personality, making people like him and want to make him happy even though normally they wouldn’t give a shit about him. They like him and want to be around him just because it makes them feel good. Using Majesty isn’t like leaning forward and slipping a command behind a human’s eyes, it’s arranging the world so that people will kill — or die — for his attention.Awe •Awe shines a spotlight on the vampire even in a crowded room. He’s the most important person around and people want to be around him. Awe creates an aura of power, a sense that the vampire’s important, like a billionaire playboy or a movie star. He could be wearing tattered clothes, with open wounds and his face caked in shit but people still think he’s cooler than them, and they want to be around him.Cost: NoneDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: SceneWhen he wills it, all eyes fall on the vampire and nobody cares what he’s doing. For the rest of the scene, he suffers no penalties to Social rolls from his actions or appearance — even if he’s just beaten another man to death or waved a gun in a crowded nightclub. Given a chance, he can talk his way out of minor criminal offenses and almost any social faux pas.As the center of attention, he adds his Majesty dots to any Presence rolls when talking to people around him. This bonus only applies when talking to people normally, not to other uses of Majesty. Anyone paying attention to him also subtracts his Majesty dots from any Wits + Composure rolls to notice anything other than the vampire. With a word, he can summon anyone in the room to his side — not by any mystical compulsion, but by making her aware that he wants her to approach. Another vampire can fortify herself against Awe with her predatory aura (see Lashing Out, p. 92). If she succeeds, she is unaffected by Awe.Confidant ••The vampire doesn’t have to shout to be heard, and in a crowd that he’s already Awed, sometimes speaking quietly is the best way to get attention. With little more than a soft voice and a knowing look, the vampire brings someone new into the fold and becomes her trusted confidant.Cost: NoneRequirement: The vampire must use Awe on the victim.Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Majesty vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The vampire slips up, letting some of what he wants the victim to feel leak back into himself. He’s affected by the Swooning Condition (p. 306) for the victim.Failure: The victim doesn’t feel that she’s worthy of joining the vampire’s inner circle just yet.Success: The vampire successfully charms his victim. She gains the Charmed Condition (p. 301).Exceptional Success: It’s incredibly hard to resist the force of the vampire’s personality. The victim’s Charmed Condition lasts for nights, rather than hours.
134 Blood and SmokeGreen Eyes •••To a victim of this level of Majesty, the vampire’s attention feels so good that it’s addictive. His inner circle craves his attention like a crackhead craves a rock or a writer needs coffee. That craving first becomes desperation and then jealousy as other people attract the vampire’s gaze, if only for a minute.Cost: 1 VitaeRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Charmed or Enthralled Condition on the target.Dice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveDuration: SceneHis victim is now thoroughly obsessed with the vampire, and he can play with her feelings and desires like they were a cheap harmonica. With Green Eyes, he can shift the emotional state of anyone he’s Charmed, sending them into a violent rage (or even a frenzy, in the case of some supernatural creatures) or making them so depressed that they feel hollow without him. Each shift costs him a point of Vitae, but he can instill the same emotion in any number of victims at once.The vampire can ask one of his Charmed minions to do something in such a way that they feel an obsessive need to accomplish it. He could ask them to kill someone, to give him money, or to perform debased and degrading acts for his amusement. A Charmed victim will do whatever he wants within reason — if the request would lead to the victim taking lethal damage or hitting a breaking point, the victim will save her own skin. She resolves the Charmed Condition immediately. An Enthralled victim is far more dangerous — she won’t commit suicide for the vampire, but anything else is fair game. If his victim would hit a breaking point, she doesn’t notice (and doesn’t roll for experiencing the breaking point) until the Enthralled Condition expires.Loyalty ••••Among his inner circle, the vampire praises some more than others, bringing them even closer to him. With a few words he can inflame their love for him. Beyond jealousy and obsession comes complete loyalty. A victim will do absolutely anything for him — and just thinking about crossing the vampire is traumatic. She ignores her other friends and her family. Her vampire is all that matters.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 135Cost: 2 VitaeRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Charmed Condition on the target.Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: Something sets the victim on edge, some discordant note forces her to rethink her affection for the vampire. She immediately resolves the Charmed Condition.Failure: Though the victim remains devoted to the vampire, her loyalty does not flare into fanaticism.Success: The vampire inspires burning loyalty in the victim. She’d do anything for him, giving up her blood or organs — or taking a bullet for him. The victim gains the Enthralled Condition.Exceptional Success: The Enthralled Condition lasts for one week per dot of Blood Potency.Idol •••••More than just a celebrity, a vampire who can play with people’s desires becomes a king or a star, the kind of person who wouldn’t ever be so crass as to demand people’s loyalty. People around him give it willingly, pledging to do whatever he wants if he’ll only notice them, look at them, or smile in their direction.Cost: 2 Vitae and 1 WillpowerDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveDuration: SceneIdol enhances Awe’s aura of superiority to divine (or blasphemous) levels. The vampire can wait until she’s established Awe and then enhance it, or pay the price to immediately establish her superiority over everyone else in the room.Anyone affected by the vampire’s Awe must make a reflexive roll of Resolve + Blood Potency minus the vampire’s Majesty dots in order to take an action that could harm or embarrass the vampire in any way. Unless they succeed, they can’t so much as crack a joke at his expense.If the vampire has inflicted the Charmed Condition on anyone in his presence, she must make a reflexive Resolve + Blood Potency – Majesty dots roll when the vampire activates Idol. If she fails, she acquires the Enthralled Condition for the remainder of the scene. People who the vampire has already Enthralled cannot spend Willpower to act against him.NightmareThe Beast doesn’t need fear. Fear is rational, understandable — a reaction to a presented stimulus. Any idiot can make people fear him. Nightmare indulges the Beast’s desire to cause abject terror. It starts slowly at first: Just for a second, you see a human face in the path of a circular saw. Your keyboard feels unaccountably warm and fleshy, but when you look down it’s fine. Walking down the street the shadows fall at the wrong angles. You bump into someone, an old friend from your childhood, and all you can do is run and scream. You fall into the arms of your wife, shaking and sobbing, but she’s holding you too tight and she smells wrong. Your daughter comes up behind you and sinks her teeth into your thigh. You scream in pain and bolt out of the door. Looking back, you see your daughter’s face.Only then does the real terror begin.Dread Presence •Everyone around the vampire feels the world go slightly wrong as she exudes a deeply unsettling aura. Even if they barely notice her, they feel a wave of fear and uncertainty. The world seems colder, everything’s just that bit more distant. People feel like someone’s watching them even when they’re otherwise alone, and for just a second they see horrible truths manifest in the world around them.Cost: NoneDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: SceneThe vampire exudes an aura of fear for the rest of the scene that gives her a number of benefits. She adds her Nightmare dots to all mundane Intimidate rolls. People around her subconsciously register her as the cause of their fear, and they shy away from her. Her victims can act against her but their hearts aren’t in it — they can’t spend Willpower to bolster their actions, though they can still use it defensively. A vampire can lash out against this aura of fear with his predatory aura (see Lashing Out, p. 92). If he succeeds, he isn’t affected by Dread Presence.As a reflexive action, the vampire can conjure brief illusions. One person’s food looks rotten and maggot-ridden, another raises his steak-knife but sees a murder victim’s head on his plate. A woman reaches for a doorknob but when she pulls her hand back it’s covered in blood. These illusions can only affect two senses each, and must be small — no larger than a small dog, and no louder than a shout. They only last for a turn or two at most, but they’re always unsettling. The vampire chooses who can see each illusion, and she can only project one at a time. Though equal parts frightening and disgusting, the illusions cannot themselves cause any harm or significant pain.Face of the Beast ••All it takes is a glance, and the vampire can magnify one of his victim’s fears to truly horrifying levels. If she knows what sort of things her victim fears, she can choose to enhance that fear specifically; otherwise she inspires an unguided terror that flares up in the victim’s heart without her knowing precisely what he’s afraid of. Whatever the case, the victim flees immediately.Cost: 1 Vitae
136 Blood and SmokeDice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: Something goes wrong. Though the victim sees visions of his fear made manifest, he stares them down. He regains a point of Willpower.Failure: The victim’s fear troubles him, but he doesn’t flee.Success: The victim gains the Frightened Condition (p. 303). If the vampire activates Dread Presence, she can designate herself as the source of the victim’s fear.Exceptional Success: The vampire gains a vision of precisely what the victim is so afraid of. While this has no mechanical advantage, it gives her something else to exploit.The Grand Delusion •••Touching her victim’s mind, the vampire sparks a delusion that only she fully understands. What she makes him believe doesn’t match up with the world as he knows it, and that discrepancy sparks a gut-wrenching fear in her victim.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Nightmare vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested, resistance is reflexiveDuration: 1 nightRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: While the victim doesn’t believe what the vampire wanted him to, she does. The vampire gains the Delusional Condition (p. 302) for the rest of the scene, her false belief being whatever she wanted the victim to believe — if she wanted Daniel to believe his friends all hated him, her delusion would be “Daniel’s friends all hate him,” not “my friends all hate me.”Failure: The delusion sparks behind the victim’s eyes, but then gutters and dies.Success: All it takes is a few words, and the victim suffers the Delusional Condition (p. 302). The vampire defines his exact beliefs, but can’t control his reaction to these beliefs, nor can she inspire a delusion that would make the victim homicidal or self-destructive. She can force someone to believe that his friends hate him, but not that he must attack them. The delusion lasts for a night; if the vampire activates Dread Presence, it instead lasts for a number of nights equal to the vampire’s Blood Potency.Exceptional Success: The vampire sparks intense delusions in the victim. The delusion lasts for three nights; if the vampire activates Dread Presence, count her Blood Potency as two higher than it is.Waking Nightmare ••••Having altered her victims’ beliefs and stoked their fears, the vampire can now spark disturbing hallucinations of a kind that all vampires suffer in torpor. These awful visions adhere to nightmarish logic, even the most apparently innocent vision turning sinister when the victim has time to focus on it.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare vs. highest Composure + Blood Potency in groupAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveDuration: SceneRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The vampire starts to hallucinate, perceiving something that only she can see that terrifies her. She must immediately roll to resist frenzy.Failure: The victims do not hallucinate, or it does not particularly affect them.Success: The vampire inflicts a single hallucination — a change or addition to what is currently present in the scene — on her victims. The hallucination lasts for a scene.Exceptional Success: The victims suffer the vampire’s version of reality for a full night.This terrible hallucination manifests to all senses, though it generally can’t change more than a single person, object, or feature of the location. She could invert the colors in a building, create a shambling monster that stalks her victims, or give herself a nightmarish appearance. The Storyteller should work with the player to determine how big a change the vampire can make. Once created, the Nosferatu can control how the vision reacts while it remains in her presence; once she has separated from her victims, her creation takes on a life of its own. The hallucination takes no effort to maintain, and will run its course even if the vampire meets Final Death.Unleashing the fears of the Beast gives the hallucination the taint of nightmares, even if the Nosferatu doesn’t intend anything overtly horrifying. A doll’s eyes follow the victims around the room, that nice man has too wide a smile and it doesn’t touch his eyes, the gentle stream reflects the light wrong and something strange is swimming in it. Nightmare cannot create a pleasant image, though no matter how awful the hallucinations can’t cause actual harm or inflict significant pain.Alone, Waking Nightmare only affects one person. Used with Dread Presence, it can affect any number of people in the vampire’s presence — though they all suffer the same hallucination, and while they are together their perceptions remain roughly consistent. Mortal Terror •••••The Nosferatu can summon horrific visions from the depths of a victim’s soul. She twists everything around her victim to
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 137present one of his worst fears made flesh. Her victim can’t sleep, his hair turns white from terror, and in some cases his heart stops dead. She can’t conjure pure fear out of nothing — her victim must already be afraid. Some Kindred implant a delusion, or summon an illusory terror to make the victim afraid.Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 WillpowerDice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Nightmare – victim’s ComposureCondition: The vampire needs to have inflicted the Frightened or Delusional Conditions on her victim.Action: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The victim faces his fears down and doesn’t back away. He gains a +3 bonus to resist Nightmare for the next week.Failure: The victim’s heart skips a beat and he starts sweating badly, but he doesn’t falter.Success: The fear reaction tears through the victim; he suffers one point of lethal damage per success. If he survives, he bears a permanent mark of coming through his fear — a nervous twitch, or a sudden streak of white in his hair — and takes the Broken Condition (p. 301). If the vampire activates Dread Presence, the victim also loses one point of Composure per success; these lost dots heal at the same rate as lethal damage.Exceptional Success: The vampire can taste and savor the victim’s fear. If her victim dies, she regains a point of Willpower.ObfuscateThe Beast is a hidden killer. It lurks just below the surface, unnoticed by its prey until it’s too late. Just another man in the street, no different from anyone else. Just another woman passing by. Why can’t you remember what they looked like? One of them turns, and you can’t quite see his face, but he’s walking towards you. Another second and he’s grabbed you. His teeth sink into your neck and all you can think is “why won’t anyone do anything? Why won’t they help me?”Obfuscate is the reason you’ll never be sure that you’re alone again.Mixed SignalsObfuscate tricks the victim’s mind directly, removing traces of the vampire from the sensory information reaching her brain, rather than fooling her senses directly. Obfuscate affects smell and taste as much as sight or hearing — potentially useful if you’ve angered a pack of werewolves, or a vampire with sharp Kindred senses.Face in the Crowd •The vampire can turn his predatory aura inwards, walking through crowds of people who pay him no heed. As long as he doesn’t do anything to obviously draw attention to himself, nobody notices him. He’s just one more person on the street, part of the city’s nightlife. People don’t shy away from him because of what he’s wearing or what he looks like. He’s just as much a fixture of the city as the rats and the graffiti.Cost: NoneDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: SceneFor the rest of the scene, people’s eyes just slide off the vampire. People can tell that someone’s there, but they don’t remember who he is or what he looks like; he’s just “some guy,” average height and build, average hair, average clothes. Unless the vampire’s doing something to draw people’s attention — pulling a gun, or screaming at people — or he’s in a place where someone doesn’t expect anyone else to be, everyone around him ignores him. They don’t care what he’s carrying; he could walk down the street with an assault rifle strapped across his back or a body slung over his shoulder, and as long as he doesn’t use it to draw attention, nobody particularly cares or remembers.If the vampire is violent towards someone — if he punches someone or starts feeding in a crowded subway station — his victim will automatically notice. If he’s doing something that would draw attention, including but not limited to being violent, everyone around him must make a reflexive Wits + Composure roll to notice the commotion, penalized by the vampire’s Obfuscate dots. The vampire’s predatory aura seemingly disappears, so that other vampires can’t sense it.Touch of Shadow ••With just a touch, the vampire can extend the muted attentions of Face in the Crowd to an object or animal, rather than himself. His subject fades out — if he masks a desk, people subconsciously register that it’s there and won’t bump in to it, but they can’t recognize what’s right in front of them unless the vampire forces them to interact with it. Even a forensic team would only remember seeing a desk if they examined photos of the scene after the fact.Cost: 1 VitaeRequirement: The vampire must touch the object he wants to hide; in the case of an unwilling victim, the vampire must roll to touch his opponent (see p. 177). The animal or object cannot have Size greater than the vampire’s own (but see Suggested Modifiers).Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny + ObfuscateAction: ReflexiveDuration: SceneRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: Something draws people’s attention to whatever the vampire wanted to hide. It’s the first thing they
138 Blood and Smokenotice when they come onto the scene, and they want to find out more about it.Failure: The object or creature doesn’t fade into the background.Success: For the rest of the scene, people’s eyes slide off the object. The vampire can affect an inanimate object or animal with the same effects as Face in the Crowd — people subconsciously register that the subject is present, but they’re not actively aware of it. If an observer is forced to deal with something affected by Touch of Shadow — being thrown into an occulted table or door, or bitten by an occulted dog — that observer can then recognize the subject’s existence.Since people have a hard time noticing occluded objects, the vampire can hide behind an object affected by Touch of Shadow to remain unnoticed. In order to notice the occluded object, observers must succeed at a reflexive Wits + Composure penalized by the vampire’s Obfuscate dots. A living creature affected by Touch of Shadow can see anything else that the vampire has Obfuscated without a roll.Exceptional Success: The victim of this power doesn’t stand out to any observer, even if they’re looking at photographs or video featuring him when the power was active.Suggested Modifiers–1 Increase the maximum affected Size by 1–2 Increase the maximum affected Size by 2–3 Increase the maximum affected Size by 3Cloak of Night •••With but a thought, the vampire slips from sight as well as mind. He doesn’t just fade into the background, he straight-up vanishes. He leaves no scent and makes no sound, though it doesn’t mask incidental signs of his passing, like drifting smoke or creaking floorboards. He can pass this effect on to others, even stealing people from the world with Touch of Shadow.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: NoneCloak of Night increases the effect of Face in the Crowd and Touch of Shadow. At its most basic, the vampire can now use Touch of Shadow on other people. This costs no addiional Vitae , and the victim is overlooked just like an object or animal. Even if the victim strikes someone, only the person she hits will notice her; everyone else must roll to notice her as for Face in the Crowd.The vampire can also spend an extra point of Vitae when activating Face in the Crowd or Touch of Shadow to vanish completely. Rather than being overlooked or just an “average presence,” the vampire instead completely disappears. Everything that he’s carrying vanishes with him. People can no longer notice his presence if he attacks someone or if he cries out. A sadistic vampire can use Cloak of Night to make his victim vanish in a crowded street, then feed with impunity while his victim cries out, never knowing why people do not help her.Particularly canny observers can follow the vampire by incidental signs of his passing — disturbed smoke, gaps in crowds, and the like. An observer rolls Wits + Composure – the vampire’s Obfuscate dots as an extended action. Each roll takes one minute, and the observer must roll more successes than the vampire’s Wits + Stealth + Obfuscate.The Familiar Stranger ••••Rather than removing himself from the perceptions of other people, the vampire can instead adjust how they see him. He can either appear as a subjective face, a “frail old woman,” or a “young lothario,” or as a specific person, like “Tom’s friend Jason.” People perceive the vampire as though he were who they’d expect to see based on his chosen disguise — everyone has a different idea of what a frail old woman looks like, after all.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: noneAction: NoneWhen using Face in the Crowd or affecting a person with Touch of Shadow, the vampire can spend the Vitae required to activate this power. She can specify a particular image that she wants to project, either a subjective category or a specific person. If she takes on the form of a specific person, everyone sees and hears what they would expect were that person present. He needs to know that the person exists, and he can’t use his description to influence people’s reactions — “the woman Tom will fall in love with,” or “a man Jennifer finds trustworthy” both fail, as they rely on influencing the victim’s thoughts and emotions about the person being imitated.A vampire can also use The Familiar Stranger on objects through Touch of Shadow. He can redefine how people see the object. The illusory object must be roughly the same size as the original object, and will pass most forms of mundane inspection — though an illusory gun won’t fire, and an illusory knife won’t cut. Simply discovering that the illusion won’t function isn’t enough to break it, however — that only happens at the end of the scene.Oubliette •••••The vampire creates a realm of his own, hiding a place from mundane senses and scrambling the perceptions of everyone within. He can turn an alleyway into a maze that nobody can escape from, or make a humble brownstone appear to be a stately manor house. He must mark the area’s boundary and exits with his Vitae, impregnating the stones and soil with his blood and bending the location to his will. Once he has spread his blood, he slumbers there for one full day before awakening as the master of his abode.Cost: 3-9 Vitae and 1 WillpowerRequirement: The vampire must spread Vitae around the area he wishes to claim, marking the gateways, exits, and landmarks. Three Vitae is enough to secure an apartment or
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 139small house, six can Obfuscate a brownstone or alleyway, and nine is enough to hide a mansion or similarly large building. After spreading blood, he must slumber for a full day in the location. He can spread the bloodletting process over several nights, but he must spend every day asleep in the location until his work is complete. The Oubliette absorbs the blood that he spills, making it invisible to Kindred senses.Dice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: 1 week per dot of Blood PotencyOnce he has established an Oubliette, the vampire can use Touch of Shadow, Cloak of Night, and The Familiar Stranger at any distance, on anyone or anything within his haven. He can affect multiple different people or objects with a single activation of the power — making the exits vanish with Cloak of Night, or using The Familiar Stranger to make his ghouls look like people his victims want to see. Using other Obfuscate powers in the Oubliette requires only one roll, and Cloak of Night and The Familiar Stranger do not cost extra Vitae.The vampire can affect individual aspects of the area separately, making rifles look like snakes or making a single door disappear, or he can make more sweeping changes with just one use of Touch of Shadow — making his run-down brownstone into a manor house with all the appropriate trappings, while the vampire himself becomes a venerable old gentleman.Someone interacting with elements of an Oubliette can see their true natures, but only for a few seconds. Since the Oubliette can cover a large area, and can change in the blink of an eye, most people shrug off minor changes as just a trick of the light.A vampire’s Oubliette lasts for one week per dot of Blood Potency, though she can reinforce the effect before it ends.ProteanEvery vampire is one bad day away from giving in to the Beast. Some keep the creature leashed within, holding it back and only letting it out to prey on the weak. Others indulge their Beasts, reveling in the descent from an undead thing yearning for its grave to a force of savage power. A vampire who attains the pinnacle of Protean becomes a formless creature, nothing more than smoke and hunger.Unmarked Grave •With a silent command, the earth itself yawns open to embrace the vampire. She merges with the ground, becoming immune to almost any harm. She can remain there indefinitely, waiting in a cocoon of soil until the time is right for her to emerge. She does not have to find stone or mud, she can just as easily slip into concrete — as long as she has servants willing to feed her while she rests.Cost: Varies; 0 for soil or earth, otherwise Vitae equal to the Durability of the material.Requirement: The vampire’s hiding place must be at least the same Size as her.Dice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: IndefiniteThe vampire sinks bodily into the earth, for as long as she desires. Once interred, she’s mostly insensible to the outside world, though she can remain conscious if she so wishes. She has a sense of the ground above her — she’s well aware if someone tries to concrete over her hiding place. Her Kindred senses continue to function, and she remains capable of sensing the predatory aura even though her safe haven means another vampire’s predatory aura can’t force her into a fight-or-flight reaction. Should someone spill blood or Vitae upon the ground, she can absorb it. The ground dilutes Vitae enough that it can’t result in a blood bond, but to a Vitae-addicted vampire just the taste might be enough to drive her out of the ground, thirsty for more.The only way to harm the vampire is to damage or destroy the ground she resides in; she takes one point of bashing damage for each point of Structure that her haven loses. When she takes her first point of lethal damage she emerges from the ground, unable to hold herself in.Predatory Aspect ••All the vampire has to do is give in just a little bit, and her Beast can slip out through her flesh, warping her body into a monstrous form. While every Gangrel’s Beast is different, its manifestation usually takes inspiration from a predatory or scavenging animal of some form. Some twist their bodies to run on all fours like a wolf, while others take on the rough skin and strange senses of a shark.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveDuration: SceneBy spending a point of Vitae, the vampire can manifest a small host of bestial traits. When she first learns Predatory Aspect, she picks three adaptations from the list below. From then on, she can manifest any or all of these changes for the rest of the scene by spending a point of Vitae.If none of these adaptations make sense for the character, the player and Storyteller should work together to create new ones, using these as guidelines.• Aquatic: Growing webbed hands or slick scales, the vampire can swim at the same Speed she can run on land.• Claws: Sharp claws grow from the vampire’s fingers. They are 1L weapons that use Brawl to attack.• Extra Sense: The Kindred grows extra sensory organs, giving her tremor sense, echolocation, or some other sense that allows her to “see” without using her eyes. Using this sense, she has a 360-degree field of vision.
140 Blood and Smoke• Feral Senses: Taking on a hawk’s eyes or a dog’s sense of smell allows the vampire to hear heartbeats and see or smell blood as though her Blood Potency were two dots higher.• Patagia: By growing a flap of leathery skin between her arms and torso, the vampire can glide — as long as she falls at least ten yards (ten meters), she can travel thirty yards (thirty meters) horizontally, and she takes no damage from the fall.• Prehensile Tail: The vampire grows a long, prehensile tail. She can use it to grab things as though it were an extra arm, though it doesn’t have a hand and can’t be used for fine-motor tasks like unlocking a door or firing a gun.• Quadripedal: Longer arms and shorter legs allow a vampire to run on all fours like a cheetah or wolf. When running on all fours, add +4 to her Speed and double all jump distances.• Wall Crawling: The vampire grows hundreds of tiny insect legs, claws on his feet, or barbed hairs on his body that allow him to move freely across walls and ceilings without an Athletics roll.A character can change her adaptations by spending a day in her Unmarked Grave and spending one point of Vitae for each adaptation she wants to replace. When she changes adaptation, the player should work to maintain the theme of a specific predatory creature — though she may pick a different predator to copy when the vampire’s adaptations change.Beast’s Skin •••The Beast can warp a vampire’s flesh, taking the form of an animal that she has consumed. Her body warps and shifts, growing extra muscle or folding in on itself until she fully resembles an animal she has consumed. The Beast will not give her the form of prey — her new skin must resonate with her predatory nature in some way.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantDuration: SceneHer flesh ripples and warps as the vampire takes on the form of an animal. She must have consumed the beast — killing it by feeding from it. She can only take on the form of predatory animals, carrion-eaters, plague-carrying beasts, and parasites between Size 1 and 7. A vampire can keep a number of forms ready equal to her dots in Protean; to add or replace one she must consume the appropriate beast then slumber for a full day and night in her Unmarked Grave.In animal form, she takes on the beast’s Physical Attributes and Skills, and its Size, Speed, and Health. She can move and sense and attack in any way that the animal can — a shark can swim and bite and sense blood, while a rat can scurry and bite, and a crow can fly. She may be unable to use some Physical Merits at the Storyteller’s discretion. She can remain in her animal form indefinitely, but she still feels the need for blood burning within her, and sunlight still harms her.While in animal form, the vampire can use her Disciplines as normal.Unnatural Aspect ••••With her Beast boiling in her blood, the pathetic shell of the vampire’s human or animal form cannot contain it. Her flesh warps, twisting and cracking under the pressure. She manifests truly horrific changes — though they may be inspired by the animal kingdom, these features come from the Beast itself, rather than the pale shadows that walk the world.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: NoneDuration: SceneWhen manifesting her Predatory Aspect, the vampire can spend an extra point of Vitae to produce a fourth feature, this one being her Beast made manifest. She can assume an adaptation from the following list; if none of these are suitable the player and Storyteller should work together to create an appropriate feature.• Barbed Hands: Pushing out tiny barbs on her hands and arms, the vampire can grab her opponents with incredible ferocity. Add her Protean dots to all grappling dice pools. When choosing the Damage move in a grapple, the vampire deals lethal damage. These barbs enable very gory feeding in the middle of a fight, tearing the victim’s skin as she bites him.• Hooked Hands: The vampire’s hands grow great hooked claws and other unnatural appendages that allow him to dig through soil and rock at up to half his Speed.• Horrid Talons: By growing giant fangs or serrated talons, the vampire can deal horrific damage to anyone who gets in her way. These weapons give a +2 lethal weapon modifier on all Brawl attacks, and armor piercing 2. The damage is lethal even to vampires.• Rubbery Flesh: Warping her flesh into a rubbery substance and her bones into flexible cartilage, the vampire can stretch, condense, and contort her body in impossible ways. She can fit through almost any gap more than an inch (two centimeters) across. If the contortion requires a roll — such as squeezing through a drain cover while someone’s shooting at her — add the vampire’s Protean dots to her dice pool.• Wings: The vampire grows great wings of sharp bone and pale leathery skin. The vampire can fly at up to her full running Speed.The vampire can replace her chosen Unnatural Aspect by sleeping for a full day and night in her Unmarked Grave and spending two points of Vitae.Primeval Miasma •••••The Beast bursts out from the vampire’s body, dissolving it into a cloud of hungry smoke. Occasionally, her victims can see
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 141flashes of yellow within the smoke, like the gleaming of eyes. Nothing short of an airtight room can bar her passage, and nothing physical can harm her.Cost: 3 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantTaking on a smoke form gives the vampire a number of advantages. She can condense herself down to her human Size, or expand into a cloud of up to (Protean + Blood Potency) yards (meters) in diameter. She can move through pretty much anything that isn’t actively airtight, and floats at half her normal Speed. She can perceive inside the cloud of smoke as clearly as if she were looking with her human senses, but the world outside her form is blurred and muted. Her Kindred senses continue to function as normal.In her smoke form, the vampire is immune to all harm that doesn’t come from fire, sunlight, or other banes that deal damage. If her smoke form is ever fully exposed to sunlight, she returns to her human form. Nothing else can force her back into her human form — as long as she avoids sunlight she can slumber in her Miasma form. It has all the same benefits as her Unmarked Grave, allowing the vampire to shift her adaptations and animal forms.Other beings pass right through the smoke. If a victim has any open wounds, the vampire can feed from them just by having them enter her Miasma — the blood boils out of his wounds, evaporating in a flash of grey and yellow smoke. If she needs to feed and can’t find someone who is already bleeding, the vampire can instead force herself into the victim’s lungs with strands of semi-tangible smoke, stealing her life-force along with her breath (grapple and “bite” using her normal Physical Attributes).ResilienceThe Kindred are walking corpses, free of the frailties of a mortal form. Their bodies are capable of great endurance, but Resilience harnesses the Beast to take that endurance beyond “great” and into “impossible.” With Resilience a vampire could continue to act even when his body has been reduced to little more than bone and tendon. Cost: None or 1 Vitae per effectDice Pool: NoneAction: None (for persistent effects) or Reflexive (for active effects)Duration: Permanent (for persistent effects) or one action (for active effects)Like other physical Disciplines, Resilience has two kinds of effects: persistent and active. Persistent effects are always on, and have no cost. Active effects are Reflexive, and cost one Vitae per effect.Persistent: Add the vampire’s dots in Resilience to his Stamina. This may raise a character’s Stamina above the normal limits imposed by his Blood Potency. Whenever he is dealt aggravated damage, for each dot of Resilience he possesses, downgrade one point of aggravated damage to lethal. This applies to damage from fire and all acquired banes, but not sunlight. Resilience offers no reprieve from the sun’s blazing eye.Active: By spending Vitae a vampire can dismiss grievous wounds, even those from banes. For each point of Vitae spent, choose one effect from the following list. A vampire may spend additional Vitae to invoke multiple effects simultaneously, but no effect of Resilience may be used more than once per turn.• Subtract his Resilience dots plus one from all non-bane sources of damage. Mechanically this is similar to armor, but does nothing to reduce the visual and superficial signs of injury. Removed damage appears to be dealt, but resisted wounds do not inhibit the vampire physically in any way, though in a social context they likely create some difficulties. All superficial wounds may be healed completely for one Vitae whenever he next slumbers.If an injury specifically removes a limb, an eye, or so on, the vampire does suffer logical impairments from the injuries.This method of reducing damage does make it more difficult to stake a vampire.• Subtract his Resilience dots from all damage from fire or other acquired banes. Sunlight still remains beyond the power of Resilience to defend against. All superficial signs of damage remain: Even if a vampire lost no Health while dashing through an inferno, he still emerges a burnt corpse. In this case, however, the visible damage is only as severe as it would be for a mortal who’d suffered the same level of harm. VigorWhile all Kindred possess the power to bolster their might in short bursts, Vigor allows some vampires to kick like a freight train or rend steel with their bare hands. The Beast tunes every bone, tendon and muscle fiber to its highest performance , allowing the night’s most fearsome predator to strut through the jungle of his choosing without fear of lesser, weaker creatures. Cost: None or 1 Vitae per active effectDice Pool: NoneAction: None (for persistent effects) or Reflexive (for active effects)Duration: Permanent (for persistent effects) or one action (for active effects)Like other physical Disciplines, Vigor has two kinds of effects: persistent and active. Persistent effects are always on, and have no cost. Active effects are Reflexive, and cost one Vitae per effect.Persistent: Add the vampire’s dots in Vigor to her Strength. This can raise her Strength above the normal limits imposed by her Blood Potency. Additionally, the vampire may make a Strength + Athletics roll to jump. The yards (meters) jumped are equal to (successes) * (Vigor dots + 1).
142 Blood and SmokeActive: By spending Vitae a vampire can energize her dead muscles, giving her a brief but substantial burst of strength. For each point of Vitae spent choose one effect from the following list. A vampire may spend additional Vitae to invoke multiple effects simultaneously, but no effect of Vigor may be used more than once per turn.• Add her dots in Vigor as a weapon bonus to all Athletics, Brawl, and Weaponry attacks made this turn. This puts enormous strain on weapons, especially those not intended for heavy hitting. Improvised weapons take one point of damage for every dot of Vigor over that tool’s durability whenever they are used in this manner.• Lift and hurl objects normally far too unwieldy to use as weapons, such as boulders, cars, and other people. Any object she can lift, with Size no greater than her Strength, can be used as an improvised melee or throwing weapon. Improvised weapons have a weapon bonus equal to the lower of their Size or Durability. Objects with Size greater than 5 deal lethal damage to mortals, while those with Size 10 or more deal lethal even to vampires.DevotionsMany vampires develop the abilities listed here for each Discipline, but some manifest new powers of the Blood. These new Discipline techniques, called Devotions, can manifest spontaneously in some Kindred, or can be developed by careful honing of Discipline abilities. Once a vampire knows a Devotion, she can teach it to another Kindred in much the same way as the standard Discipline techniques. Any vampire with the appropriate prerequisite Discipline dots can develop any Devotion for which she has the dots — as long as she has a teacher, or has plenty of time to practice. Even so, most Kindred keep the Devotions they know secret, passing them along only when it suits their purposes. Devotions are rare enough among the Kindred population that they have intrinsic value as secrets.A new Devotion usually costs one Experience per dot in the Devotion, halved and rounded down. Subsume the Lesser Beast, which requires Animalism 4 and Dominate 2 costs three Experiences. Particularly specialized Devotions may cost a point less, while wildly versatile Devotions cost an extra Experience. All of the Devotions in this section cost one Experience per dot unless noted otherwise.Body of Will (Resilience •••, Vigor •)Kindred trained in this Devotion can push through pain, and find strength in pain and injury. On the outside, it looks like masochism; crippling blows empower and invigorate the vampire. But this Devotion transfers the energy of a wounding attack into the fuel for the vampire’s Vigor. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Stamina + Survival + ResilienceAction: ReflexiveFor one turn per success, the character suffers no wound penalties. As well, during any turn where he takes damage, he does not need to spend Vitae to activate one effect of Vigor. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Chain of Command(Dominate •••, Vigor •)Dominate masters can implant suggestions and commands into their victims. With this Devotion, the vampire can force more of her own will into her victim, imparting a single use of her own Dominate for the victim to use later. She must clearly explain on whom he must use the gift, and how. She can give a general description, such as “the first person you see wearing red.” Or, she can be very specific: “Tell this to Gregor at 11:45 P.M. sharp.”Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: Intelligence + Persuasion + Dominate, vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveThe victim does not have to resist if he so chooses. If successful, the vampire plants one of her Dominate effects deep within the victim. At the specified moment, he uses the Dominate command as directed. However, this uses the vampire’s dice pool, not the victim’s. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Cloak the Gathering (Obfuscate •••••)The vampire slips from the mind as easily as easily as blood dripping from an open wound, though rather than picking off his victims, he can make a whole group vanish at once. He might obscure his comrades — or pluck a group of unwilling victims from the minds of onlookers, leaving them scared and isolated. Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: NoneCloak the Gathering enhances the effect of Touch of Shadow and Cloak of Night. By paying two extra points of Vitae, the vampire can expand the effect of Touch of Shadow to encompass a number of people equal to his Blood Potency, though each one cannot individually have a Size greater than the vampire’s own. He can also opt to activate Face in the Crowd at the same time. If he also pays the extra cost for Cloak of Night to vanish completely rather than fading into the background, the effect applies to everyone masked by Cloak the Gathering — so for four points of Vitae total he can vanish from sight along with a number of people equal to his Blood Potency. The vampire doesn’t have to touch everyone he takes with him, but they must be within his (Obfuscate + Blood Potency) yards (meters).This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 143Conditioning (Dominate ••••)Over a period of weeks, the vampire pushes on her victim’s will, forcing him to repeat the same tasks over and over until he cannot resist her voice. She slowly builds up control over her victim to the point where he can barely manifest his own thoughts or feelings. Instead he’s an empty shell, waiting for his mistress’ next command.Cost: NoneDice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Dominate vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyRequirement: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victim. Conditioning can only be used on the same victim once every two nights.Action: InstantRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The victim reasserts his will in a dramatic fashion. He resolves the Mesmerized Condition; he keeps the bonus to resist further Mesmerize attempts for the next week.Failure: The vampire cannot get her victim to repeat exactly the same tasks for now.Success: The victim’s will bends before the vampire. He gains the Subservient Condition (p. 306).Exceptional Success: The victim’s will bends like grass before the storm of the vampire’s commands. Mark an extra cross when applying the Subservient Condition.Each time the vampire inflicts the Subservient Condition on a character, his player should put a cross or other mark above one of his Willpower dots, starting from the left. Each dot can only have one mark. If the Subservient Condition is allowed to fade naturally, remove the rightmost cross. When each of the character’s Willpower dots has a mark above it, he exchanges the Subservient Condition for the Enslaved Condition (p. 303).This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Cross-Contamination(Majesty •, Nightmare •)Majesty awes its victims; Nightmare unnerves them. This Devotion blends the two effects, creating a confusing aura where those affected rapidly shift between fear and elation. Cost: NoneDice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Lower of Majesty or NightmareAction: InstantOnce active, this Devotion confuses everyone in the vampire’s immediate presence, forcing their emotions to swing between adoration and disgust. This causes a handful of effects: • They become confused and disoriented, not sure what to think or feel. This reduces their effective Composure by one dot.• The vampire becomes a beacon for the crowd’s attention. Looking away from her requires a Composure + Blood Potency roll, contested against her successes. The victim must only meet the vampire’s successes. • Any rolls to resist Persuasion- or Intimidation-based Social maneuvers lose the 10-again quality. • A character may not have Awe or Dread Presence active at the same time as Cross-Contamination. This Devotion costs 1 Experience to learn.Cult of Personality(Majesty ••••, Vigor •••)Under normal circumstances, Loyalty inflicts a deep, overbearing sense of obedience on a single victim. With this Devotion, the vampire broadcasts her charm and overwhelms all in her presence. All but the strongest fall in line and worship her. Cost: 10 VitaeDice Pool: Presence + Socialize + MajestyAction: InstantIf successful, this Devotion washes the effects of Loyalty over the crowd. It affects any character with fewer Composure + Blood Potency dots than the vampire has successes. Those afflicted gain the Enthralled Condition. This Devotion costs 4 Experiences to learn.Enchantment(Majesty ••••, Obfuscate ••)Majesty is a gift that draws attention and bends feelings toward the vampire. With this Devotion, and a bit of Obfuscate, the vampire can deflect those feelings to another person, or to a place or thing. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveIf successful, this Devotion works as Loyalty, but the vampire can designate a source for the Enthralled Condition instead of focusing it on herself. All the other parameters remain the same, but the victim insists on defending and cherishing a different person, place, or thing. She has to somehow communicate the desired subject of the Enchantment to the victim for this Devotion to work. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Enfeebling Aura(Majesty •, Resilience •)Many Daeva masters of Celerity and Vigor claim that Majesty means nothing when you’re staring down a skull-crushing fist. This Devotion seeks to disprove that notion. It brings forth
144 Blood and Smokethe vampire’s supernatural presence not to awe a crowd, but to cow and enfeeble a victim. While it won’t completely stop an assailant, it will even the playing field in a tussle. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Majesty vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveIf successful, this Devotion temporarily removes dots of the victim’s Celerity, Resilience, and Vigor, in whatever combination the vampire wishes. The vampire removes dots one-for-one along with her Majesty dots for the scene, up to her successes. For example, she can sacrifice three dots of her Majesty, losing access to them for the scene, to remove two dots of Vigor and one dot of Resilience from her victim for the scene.This Devotion costs 3 Experiences to learn.Foul Grave(Protean •, Nightmare •)Usually, when interred in an Unmarked Grave, the vampire rests passively, barely aware of his surroundings, let alone able to influence them. With this Devotion, he can project his predatory aura on those near his resting place. Some vampires use this ability to divert pursuers or even as a stalling tactic when confronted by a mob of attackers. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveWhile the vampire does not fully maintain all his senses, he’s vaguely aware of those nearby. He gets a brief mental glimpse of mortals in the vicinity, and still feels the auras of Kindred. While in his Unmarked Grave, he can activate predatory aura normally, but it costs a point of Vitae in addition to the Willpower required if the victim is Kindred. This Devotion costs 1 Experiences to learn. Force of Nature(Protean ••••, Resilience ••••, Vigor ••)Most of Protean’s gifts change the vampire subtly, or in small ways, in accordance with nature. Unnatural Aspect takes that a step further, moving into eldritch territory with a single mutation. When the vampire activates Force of Nature, her body becomes a mess of rapid change. She grows and loses limbs in the blink of an eye. Her skin becomes rock solid, then gelatinous within moments. She’s truly protean; she changes the way water flows. However, she needs the strength of Resilience to protect her form from collapsing in upon itself. Cost: 8 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantWhen activating Force of Nature, the vampire gains as many of the advantages of Predatory Aspect, Beast’s Skin, and Unnatural Aspect as she wishes, without Vitae costs. She can adopt additional modifications or shed existing ones as a reflexive action. As well, with an instant action, she can shift a number of Physical Attribute dots equal to her Protean to other Physical Attributes. These change derived traits, and can exceed her normal limitations. The effects of Force of Nature last for the scene.This Devotion costs 5 Experiences to learn.Gargoyle’s Vigilance(Auspex •, Resilience ••)This Devotion grants a patient and vigilant vampire the ability to oversee her haven with immense clarity. She becomes completely aware of every single inch, and can respond at a moment’s notice. When she moves against a trespasser, nothing can stop her. Her Resilience affords her senses a stoic patience, so she can divide her attention throughout her resting place.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveThis Devotion requires the vampire to remain completely still, in a location reflected by the Safe Place Merit (see p. 123). She has to be stationary for at least ten minutes before this Devotion offers its benefits. While stationary, she has full use of her Auspex abilities, centered on any single spot of her choosing within the haven. Having full awareness, she may change the spot at will. She receives +5 to any rolls to detect intruders. If she decides to move against an intruder, she gains +5 to her Initiative for the scene. As well, she does not need to spend Vitae to activate her Resilience.With a point of Willpower, this Devotion may be used while the vampire slumbers.This Devotion costs 1 Experiences to learn. An advanced version of this Devotion exists, utilizing Protean 5, costing 4 Experiences. This version allows the vampire to become a statue, immune to fire and sunlight while remaining stationary.Hint of Fear(Celerity ••, Nightmare ••)Usually, using Face of the Beast takes extended eye contact, and none could confuse it for anything but an attempt to invoke pure terror. With a subtle application of Celerity, this Devotion allows the vampire to use a rapid, unnoticeable look to bring the Face of the Beast to bear. If the vampire doesn’t designate himself as the source of the fear, onlookers will be none the wiser. Cost: 1 Vitae, plus one for Face of the BeastDice Pool: None, roll normally for Face of the BeastAction: Reflexive
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 145This Devotion allows the vampire to use Face of the Beast as a reflexive action. This requires a second point of Vitae, so the vampire must be able to spend two vitae in a turn to use it without preparation. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn. Juggernaut’s Gait(Resilience •••••, Vigor •••)With this rare Devotion, an elder Kindred can temporarily render herself completely immune to harm. Her blood flows rapidly from her flesh, and coats her body to defend her. Even the strongest Kindred cannot maintain this ability for more than a few seconds at a time, but for those moments, they’re veritable gods of blood. Cost: 5 Vitae per turnDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveThis Devotion requires the vampire spend five Vitae per turn she wishes to remain immune to harm. During this time, all damage — bashing, lethal, aggravated, even damage caused by the fire or by sunlight — is absorbed into her blood before it reaches her skin. She takes no damage from any source. Note that this Devotion does not allow the vampire to spend additional Vitae; she must be able to spend five in a turn to use Juggernaut’s Gait without preparation. She can spend the first four on preceding turns, and the fifth when she wishes to evoke the protection. However, invoking the Devotion is reflexive, and the Vitae may be spent after an opponent makes a successful attack roll. This Devotion costs 4 Experiences to learn.Quicken Sight(Auspex •, Celerity •)With the preternatural awareness of Auspex and the remarkable speed of Celerity, the vampire gains a exceptional sense of time and the space around her. For a brief moment, she sees everything at a slow crawl, and can react thusly. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveWhen activated, Quicken Sight lasts for a turn. The vampire can examine the details on fast-moving items, and respond to things outside the normal human spectrum. She can read multiple pages of text in three seconds. She can apply her Defense to ranged attacks, and can benefit from aiming instantly. This Devotion costs 1 Experiences to learn.
146 Blood and SmokeReason’s Salon(Animalism ••••, Resilience ••)Animalism can draw bestial behavior out of a person, but with this Devotion, it can also suppress those behaviors. By spreading his Vitae about a building or gathering place, the vampire can keep Kindred from losing control and unleashing their Beasts for a short time. For this reason, it’s not uncommon to see a Gangrel Master of Elysium. Cost: 5 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantThe vampire must spread his Vitae about the location (usually a building or clearing) he wishes to calm. Throughout the evening, vampires within suffer the user’s Resilience dots as a penalty to all predatory aura rolls. As well, they add the same number to any rolls to resist frenzy. This Devotion costs 3 Experiences to learn. Riot(Animalism ••••, Majesty •••••)Feral Infection gives an Animalism user the power to move a small group of people to bestial rampages. Coupled with the pinnacle ability of Majesty, an elder can cause a large group of people to explode into complete bedlam, where they hurt each other, destroy property, and resort to other violent, antisocial behaviors. This Devotion brings the full weight of the vampire’s predatory aura to bear on her surroundings.Cost: 10 VitaeDice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + MajestyAction: InstantWhen activated, Riot overwhelms a wide area (a city block, or half mile), and everyone within it. Anyone with a lower Composure + Blood Potency than the vampire’s successes suffers from the Bestial, Competitive, and Wanton Conditions. The victims burst into aggressive, base behaviors. This is not animalistic behavior; it’s destructive, short-sighted, and selfish. It causes a bloodbath of massive proportions. Use of this Devotion is considered a Humanity 1 breaking point. This Devotion costs 5 Experiences to learn. Shared Sight(Auspex ••••, Dominate •)While employing Dominate’s trance, a practitioner of this Devotion can extend to her subject some of her second sight. It’s a limited, less effective version of her Auspex, but it opens an otherwise uninitiated mind.Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + AuspexAction: InstantWhen activating this Devotion, your character may impart to another a number of dots of her Auspex equal to or less than the successes rolled. The recipient has full access to the abilities granted, but cannot use the lender’s dice for activation. to the borrower must make rolls with just Attributes, Skills, and any Auspex dots he may have. The imparted dots last for the remainder of the scene. During this time, the lender loses that many dice from all Auspex rolls. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Shatter the Shroud(Auspex ••, Vigor •)With Auspex, Kindred can see through the shrouds of Obfuscate and other Discipline effects (and supernatural powers) that others use in attempts to hide. This Devotion extends that ability with force, shattering those gifts and exposing their users for the world to see. Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: ReflexiveActivate this Devotion any time your character wins in a Clash of Wills roll (see p. 125) to pierce a hiding ability. Not only does your character win the Clash of Wills, but the victim’s hiding effect ends immediately. He can re-activate it normally on the next turn, if applicable. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Stalwart Servant(Dominate •••, Resilience •)This Devotion enables the Kindred to impart some of her preternatural toughness through her blood, making for stronger servants and bodyguards. The subject drinks of the Kindred’s Vitae, with normal ghouling, addiction, and blood bond effects, and then receives a hint of the vampire’s Resilience. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: This power requires no roll to invokeAction: InstantOnce the subject feeds, the vampire imparts her own Resilience dots onto him. He still needs to spend Vitae to activate the Resilience, but he receives one as part of the invocation. He cannot benefit from this Devotion if he already has Resilience at an equal or higher level than the vampire. This Devotion lasts one night. The vampire may maintain a number of subjects equal to her Blood Potency. The drinker gains the passive benefits of Resilience, and the vampire does not lose access to the Discipline.This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 147Subsume the Lesser Beast (Animalism ••••, Dominate ••)The vampire locks eyes with an animal and forces her mind into its body. She can only command a predator, a parasite, a carrion-eater, or a plague-bearer; she cannot affect a mere prey animal. She completely subsumes the animal’s consciousness, piloting it like a meat puppet. Her body falls into a state of torpor while she controls the beast.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism – animal’s ResolveRequirement: The vampire must feed 1 Vitae to the animal (included in cost).Action: ReflexiveRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The animal throws off the vampire’s attempt at control. For the rest of the night, the vampire manifests a number of physical tics akin to the animal’s behavior. Any Social rolls suffer a –2 penalty.Failure: The vampire cannot take total control of the animal yet.Success: The vampire takes over the animal’s body for one night per success. She uses the animal’s Physical Attributes and Skills in place of her own, and cannot use her own Physical or Combat Merits. She can stay awake during the day by spending a point of Willpower at dawn, and takes no damage from sunlight; if she does not spend the Willpower, she returns to her body. She cannot use any Disciplines or Blood Sorcery while in the animal’s body, but can use any of its senses, natural weapons, or forms of locomotion. While she commands the animal’s body, her own body lies in a torpor-like state, awaiting her return — though she must spend a point of Vitae every night to remain active. If the vampire remains in the animal’s body for so long that her body slips into torpor, she immediately snaps back into her body.Exceptional Success: The vampire can still access some of the power of her blood even in the animal’s body. She keeps access to Auspex when in the animal’s body.This Devotion costs 3 Experiences to learn.Summoning (Dominate •••• or Majesty ••••)The vampire reaches out to someone whom he knows, anywhere in the world, and calls her to his side. Somehow, the victim knows that the vampire wants her to be with him, and she will go to be by his side come hell or high water. Summoning isn’t instant — it can’t account for natural disasters — but the victim will happily empty her bank accounts and steal from friends or family to make the trip. She knows who has called her and where to find him, but the urge to meet him is an emotional compulsion rather than a supernatural command, and she won’t put herself in unnecessary danger to make the journey — a vampire is still self-aware enough to seek shelter for the day even though he has been summoned. At the time of summoning, the vampire can impress upon his victim the need to bring something with her — weapons to defend her master from a nemesis, or a sacrifice for some strange Blood Sorcery.Kindred can develop this Devotion with the requisite level of either Dominate or Majesty. Its effects are the same, but the vampire must buy it related to one Discipline. The requirement and dice pool are set when the vampire develops the Devotion.This Devotion costs 4 Experiences to learn.Cost: 1 VitaeRequirement: Dominate: The vampire must have inflicted the Mesmerized Condition on the victim within the last year. Majesty: The vampire must have used Awe on the victim within the last year.Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + (Dominate or Majesty) vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveDuration: 1 nightRoll ResultsDramatic Failure: The victim knows that the vampire wants her to go to him, and does everything in her power to actively avoid him, using her sense of where he is to aid her.Failure: Something prevents the victim from coming to the vampire’s side.Success: The victim knows where the vampire is and has a sudden compulsion to travel to him. She will travel to meet him by the most direct means available to her, stopping only for necessities. The compulsion lasts for the rest of the night from the vampire’s perspective — if he’s calling someone from the other side of the world, the effects last until sunrise wherever he is.Exceptional Success: The victim’s compulsion lasts throughout the day and for all of the next night as well, long enough for many international journeys — or at least for the victim to find a way to smuggle herself overseas.Suggested ModifiersModifier Situation+1 The vampire knows exactly where his victim is.–1 The vampire has no idea where his victim is, but knows that she is within the same domain.–1 The victim dislikes the vampire and resents being summoned.–3 The victim is over 500 miles away, or despises the vampire.–5 The victim is on the other side of the world.This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.
148 Blood and SmokeSun’s Brutal Dreamscape(Nightmare •••••, Resilience ••)Nothing frightens Kindred worse than the vengeful rays of the sun or the heat of the fire. Most Kindred can manage short bursts in the daylight, but most avoid it whenever possible. This Devotion curses a sleeping victim to suffer all the burns the vampire experiences from the sun, and curses him with horrifying dreams of the sun’s purifying touch. These terrifying daymares leave the victim waking terrified and charred. This Devotion may only be used on Kindred victims. It costs 4 Experiences to learn.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Nightmare, vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveOnce used successfully, this Devotion remains active for a number of nights equal to the successes rolled. While it is active, the victim, selected by touch, suffers every sunlight wound the vampire takes, so long as the victim is asleep when the damage occurs. The vampire still takes the damage. This damage can awaken the victim. A victim so awakened wakes with the Frightened Condition (see p. 303).Touch of Deprivation(Obfuscate ••••, Dominate ••) With this Devotion, the vampire can deny a victim her senses with only a touch. He chooses a single sense when activating the Devotion, and that sense becomes temporarily useless. Often, this Devotion serves to blind enemies or deafen a victim at a critical time. This Devotion costs 3 Experiences to learn. Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Auspex vs. Resolve + Blood PotencyAction: InstantTo activate this Devotion, the vampire must touch his victim (see Touching an Opponent on p. 177). If successful, the vampire denies the victim’s chosen sense for the remainder of the scene. This Devotion can be used to deny the victim one of her Auspex abilities, if known. Undying Familiar(Animalism ••, Resilience ••) Raise the Familiar awakens a dead animal to serve its Kindred master. However, the animal must be dead for that ability to take effect. This Devotion cuts out the middle man, and awakens a living, ghouled animal at its time of death. Cost: 2 VitaeDice Pool: NoneAction: InstantActivate this Devotion and Raise the Familiar at the same time, when feeding an animal Vitae. As long as the animal remains ghouled, this Devotion remains in effect. If the animal dies while ghouled, it immediately rises under Raise the Familiar, but its undead existence is measured in weeks instead of nights. This Devotion costs 1 Experiences to learn.Wet Dream(Majesty ••, Nightmare ••) This Devotion blends the more subconscious effects of Majesty and Nightmare to plague the victim’s sleep. His dreams leave him both feeling dirty, and wanting more. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty, vs. Composure + Blood PotencyAction: Contested; resistance is reflexiveIf successful, this Devotion takes effect when next the victim sleeps. His frightening and arousing dreams cause the both the Spooked and Swooning Conditions (see p. 305 and p. 306). The vampire chooses the subject of both Conditions. The victim sheds each Condition individually. However, the two Conditions only give one Beat, and only once they’re both resolved. The Wish(Celerity ••, Majesty ••••, Vigor ••) “For three nights, you’ll be fast, you’ll be strong, you’ll be beautiful, and you’ll stand above the flock. After that, you’re mine. Do you understand?” This classic Daeva Devotion is a common fixture of the Serpent’s Embrace. The vampire finds someone she wishes to exalt, then makes him an offer for temporary supremacy. He gets a taste of power, and wants more. At the end of the deal, the victim becomes irrevocably attached to the vampire. It requires a great deal of Vitae to enact, but creates a loyal supplicant. This Devotion can only be used once on a given character, and only on mortals. It costs 2 Experiences to learn.Cost: 5 VitaeDice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + MajestyAction: InstantTo use this Devotion, the victim must agree to the terms; three nights of power, but he willl belong to the vampire afterward. The terms can be that vague, but must be stated and agreed to, without any supernatural coercion. The victim must feed from the vampire as part of the agreement. When the deal is struck, the victim gains a number of advantages for three nights: • He gains two levels of Celerity and Vigor. He can activate them by spending Willpower instead of Vitae.
Chapter Three: Laws of the Dead 149• He gains three levels of Majesty. He can activate these with Willpower instead of Vitae. • He needs no sleep, and can go without food and water without issue. At the end of the period, he gains the Persistent Enthralled Condition. It persists indefinitely. Vermin Flood(Animalism •••, Celerity ••, Vigor ••) This Devotion takes the groundwork laid by Summon the Hunt, and increases it exponentially. Vermin Flood calls every small animal in the neighborhood to swarm en masse and pick apart every little thing in the chosen area. Not only do they feed on living things, but they wipe the space clean. While effective as an assault against groups, it sees some use in cleaning up crime scenes. Unlike Summon the Hunt, this Devotion never appears to be a coincidental event. The Vermin Flood is a plague of biblical proportions. While it tends to stretch the Masquerade, it also causes disbelief in onlookers. Those in the swarm do not survive to tell the tale. Cost: 10 VitaeDice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + AnimalismAction: InstantTo activate this devotion, the vampire must spread her Vitae over an area no larger than a small house or an alleyway. Once activated, every animal of Size 2 or lower immediately swarms with the speed and intensity of the vampire’s Celerity and Vigor (persistent effects only). This includes any vermin, cats, birds, and insects. They wash over the area, tearing, chewing, and destroying. Everything in the area but the vampire takes lethal damage equal to the vampire’s Animalism dots each turn. This ignores any non-magical armor. Characters moving in the swarm move at half Speed. The vermin will not leave the affected area for the remainder of the scene. Only a very large fire will slow the swarm, and even then, only in the area aflame. This Devotion costs 4 Experiences to learn.Wraith’s Presence(Obfuscate •••, Nightmare •) With this Devotion, the vampire can make herself or something else vanish from the mind’s eye, but appear elsewhere. This diversion can distract a pursuer, or make someone rush after a false lead. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences to learn.Cost: 1 VitaeDice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + ObfuscateAction: InstantActivate this Devotion when using Cloak of Night. The vampire projects an exact image of the desired subject in another place she can see. The image stays mostly still unless the vampire concentrates on moving it. It’ll make the necessary